Projects
Save Voyager and Hubble
On October 31, 2006, NASA Administrator Mike Griffin decided to send the space shuttle Discovery to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, reversing a decision made by his predecessor, Sean O'Keefe.
This is a tremendous victory for Planetary Society members -- and for the millions around the world who rose up in protest at the unbelievable decision to let Hubble die. Some 10,000 Planetary Society members focused their efforts in a petition campaign directed at the U.S. Congress, which controls NASA's purse-strings. Congress listened to us. And NASA listened to Congress.
The Planetary Society campaigned not just to save Hubble, but also to save the Voyager spacecraft now probing the edges of our solar system. As part of another wave of budget-cutting, NASA planned to shut down operations just as the spacecraft were approaching the heliopause, the boundary with interstellar space.
The move to shut down Voyager was simply over-zealous bean-counting. When the ramifications of turning off two of the most successful robotic explorers in history were rammed home, the proposal was allowed to evaporate. Now, at the edge of the solar system, Voyagers 1 and 2 will continue to explore the unknown until around 2020, when their nuclear batteries will run down. By then, we will be ready to say "well done" and let them go.
You made that possible. You and your fellow Planetary Society members made your voices heard. You and millions around the world changed a government bureaucracy and got the result the future will thank you for. Congratulations.
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