Galaxy guru

With its glorious images of distant stars and colliding galaxies, not to mention the huge amount of ground-breaking science it has unearthed, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed forever how we view the depths of space. But even global icons eventually run out of steam.

For a number of years, the strains of life in the bleak extremities of space have taken their toll on the 'people's telescope'. While many believe that Hubble's time has come and that it should be allowed to 'de-orbit' gracefully,

administrator Michael Griffin has surprisingly granted the venerable old astronomer one last stay of execution.

Hubble's fifth servicing mission, the confusingly titled Servicing Mission Four (SM4) after missions 3A and 3B in 1999 and 2002 respectively, nearly didn't happen. The US Senate had initially baulked at funding an expensive 'patch-up' job to keep Hubble functioning for another 18 months, particularly at a time when large amounts of money were required to re-equip the shuttle fleet for the Return to Space programme after the Columbia disaster.