Wide Field Camera 3
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Project Updates 2005

April

New NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has announced that robotic servicing of Hubble will not be performed, because of excessive cost and risk.

However, he has authorized the HST Project to return to preparations for a shuttle-based Servicing Mission 4. He indicated that a formal decision whether or not to fly SM4 with the shuttle will not be made until after successful shuttle return-to-flight. However, in view of the likelihood that SM4 will ultimately be approved, he authorized work toward carrying out that mission to proceed so that SM4 can be ready for launch efficiently once the final servicing decision is made. This is excellent news for WFC3 and provides clear direction for us to systematically work through the instrument "liens" and get it into tip-top shape for launch.