Finally, I can come back to look a bit more at my space interests. My rsyslog project kept me so busy that I couldn’t follow space as much as I liked.
The first thing I see is that the Hubble Servicing missing has been postponed. There is a problem with a critical component inside HST, which, if not fixed, causes fatal problems. Thankfully, the faulty element is designed so that it can be replaced during a servicing mission. Also it was great luck that the component failed now, and not after the (final) hubble servicing mission.
The HST flight has been postponed to early 2009 (NASA tells mid-February as a “no earlier than” date) so that analysis can be completed and repair procedures be created.
As bad as it was, last year’s flight delays now have helped saved Hubble! Why? Simply: if not for the delays, the hubble servicing mission would already have been flown by the time the component failed. That would have been the death of hubble. So bad luck sometimes turns into good luck again :)