Mikulski Celebratres Hubble Space Telescope’s 100,000th Orbit

“This morning, the greatest scientific instrument since Galileo’s telescope has reached another great milestone – its 100,000th orbit around the earth. Hubble has given us amazing insight into the origins of our Universe, and I’m so proud of the men and women at Goddard and the Space Telescope Science Institute for their contributions and dedication to these great discoveries.

“The entire world is looking forward to the Hubble servicing mission in October 2008, when Hubble will get new scientific instruments, new batteries and new gyroscopes. The servicing mission will extend Hubble’s life and give it a more powerful view of our Universe. After NASA cancelled the Hubble Mission in 2004, I asked for a second opinion. I promised that if the NASA Administrator said a servicing mission was safe, I would fight for the funding to get it done – and I kept that promise. Hubble is the telescope that could, and its best years are ahead of it!”