Hubba Hubba Hubble

The M51 Galaxy and (below) an Eagle Nebula detail

NASA's emphasis on manned space flight has been an enormous waste of money, and to a lesser extent human lives. The International Space Station is a justification for the space shuttle program, plain and simple, and of dubious scientific value, while I can only imagine the good use that the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on those programs could have been put.

Then there is the Hubble Space Telescope, which went through some serious birthing pains when it was launched in 1990 and was nearly scraped rather than being repaired a few years back. But the Hubble has hung on and shuttle astronauts recently made another servicing mission (which would seem to undercut my anti-shuttle argument, no?), giving it a life expectancy of at least five more years.

The Hubble has been an extraordinary achievement. It has discovered hundreds of proto-galaxies that emitted light when the universe was forming, and has helped establish its age and expansion rate. With the latest fixes and upgrades, the telescope will be able to peer even deeper into space and farther back in time, and that is downright cosmic.