Tag: Paul Hertz

  • NASA blames recent Hubble woes on aging hardware

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    The Hubble Space Telescope, seen from the space shuttle Columbia at the end of a 2002 servicing mission. The observatory’s door is open in this picture. Credit: NASA Hardware problems that cropped up earlier this month on the Hubble Space Telescope, now approaching the 31st anniversary of its launch, are the latest signs the observatory…

  • WFIRST astronomy mission faces cuts to contain rising costs

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    Artist’s concept of the WFIRST observatory. Credit: NASA/GSFC NASA has directed the team developing the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope, a flagship astronomy mission set for launch in the mid-2020s to study dark energy and exoplanets, to reduce the observatory’s scientific capabilities and keep it under a $3.2 billion cost cap. Fresh off their experience with…

  • Detector trouble expected to delay ESA’s Euclid dark energy mission

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    Artist’s concept of the Euclid spacecraft. Credit: ESA/C. Carreau Technical problems discovered during ground testing of U.S.-built detectors for the European Space Agency’s Euclid astronomy mission will delay the completion of the telescope’s scientific payload, jeopardizing the observatory’s 2020 launch target, the head of NASA’s astrophysics division said last week. Officials expect the problem, traced…

  • NASA might privatize one of its great observatories

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    Artist’s concept of the Spitzer Space Telescope seen against the infrared sky. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC) Management of NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope could be turned over to an academic institution or private operator in 2019 once the space agency’s funding for the observatory runs out, a senior NASA manager said this week. Launched in August…