White House probes NASA, as Europeans launch two advanced Telescopes

[nithyasubramanian]

NASA is looking a little long in the tooth compared to the European Space Agency. Monday, NASA will launch a long-awaited repair mission to install improved instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope, originally launched in 1990.

Thursday, the Europeans will launch two much more advanced telescopes (right) that can see photons, even those reaching back to the Big Bang. Hubble sees visual light. The Europeans' one-up-manship comes as the White House announced a major review of NASA operations, to be completed by August, that threatens serious changes in the way NASA does business.

The big story with NASA, Harwood reported, is that the White House projected budget for 2010 released last week shows a $3.1 billion cut in NASA's exploration activities. "If the three-plus billion dollars in the out years, if that cut stands, then there's no moon by 2020 and maybe none at all," an senior space manager at NASA told Harwood.

Meanwhile, the Europeans are launching on Thursday Herschel, an infrared telescope with the largest mirror ever launched into space (11.5 feet across), and Planck, which will study the cosmic background radiation of the universe, the Miami Herald reports.

Infrared is important because light from the oldest objects are stretched out to the red end of the spectrum. The U.S.'s best effort at infrared is the Spitzer Space Telescope, launched five years ago with a measly 2.8 feet mirror.

courtesy : ZD Net