Is there a plan to retrieve the Hubble Space Telescope from space to preserve it in the Smithsonian Institution or elsewhere for future generations to appreciate

Published: October 26, 2009

The Hubble Space Telescope looked clean and spiffy on April 25, 1990, when astronauts on the space shuttle Discovery nudged the space observatory into orbit.

Photo by NASA/Smithsonian Institution/Lockheed Corporation

No. NASA's space shuttle fleet is scheduled to go out of service in 2010. And after that, neither the United States nor any other nation will have a space vehicle capable of returning such a large piece of equipment to Earth.

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