NASA is orphaning the Hubble space telescope by halting shuttle flights necessary for periodic maintenance even before Bush’s new space initiative phases out the shuttle vehicle six years from now. Among Hubble’s achievements, according to this BBC rundown:

• Gave us the age of the Universe
  
• Provided proof of black holes
  
• Gave first views of star birth
  
• Showed how stars die
  
• Caught spectacular views of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9’s collision with Jupiter
  
• Confirmed that quasars are galactic nuclei powered by black holes
  
• Gathered evidence that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating

Since the new Bush plan is a virtually unfunded mandate to NASA to replace valuable space science with vote-getting glitz (space activity is concentrated in two states with fat pots of electoral votes, Florida and Texas), it is unclear if the successor to the telescope, scheduled for a 2011 launch, will ever be produced.