Introduction – Catherine Pilachowski, AAS President

Following the decision by Sean O’Keefe, the Administrator of NASA, on January 16 to terminate work on Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission 4, the AAS offered to both Dr. Anne Kinney, the Director of the Office of Astronomy and Physics in NASA’s Office of Space Science and to Dr. Steven Beckwith, Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute, the opportunity
to prepare brief statements for distribution to our members.

These statements address how we might be able to Achieve the highest science productivity from HST and from other programs in the Office of Astronomy and Physics in light of the Administrator’s decision to terminate SM4. The statements follow below.

The AAS is grateful to Dr. Kinney and to Dr. Beckwith for providing this information for our members

We also wish to call your attention to a new Hubble Public Policy webpage available from the Society’s homepage at www.aas.org/policy/HubbleServicingCancellation.html.
The page will be updated as new information becomes available.

Statement from Dr. Anne Kinney, Director Astronomy and Physics Division, NASA’s Office of Space Science

The NASA Astronomy and Physics Division is greatly saddened by the cancellation of the Hubble Space Telescope fifth servicing mission (SM4), but fully supports the Administrator’s decision, a decision based on issues related to risk.

We have received many messages and phone calls from concerned astronomers and from the public and do appreciate the significance of this decision. We are now turning our focus to the future: optimizing the scientific life of Hubble Space Telescope, continuing to maintain healthy support for astronomical research both at Space Telescope Science Institute and in the
astronomical community in general, and getting James Webb Space Telescope up and operating.

We have directed the HST Project Office at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) to use its knowledge and talent to develop ways to extend the useful operational life of the Hubble Space Telescope. Scientists and engineers at GSFC and the Space Telescope Science Institute are already devising techniques that we expect will extend and optimize the productive science life
of the HST.

We recognize the importance of the superb quality data returned by the HST, the investigations it enables and the significant support that HST-related grants provide to the community. The Astronomy and Physics Division intends to continue to support HST related science for
both Guest Observer and for Archival Research programs until the Guest Observer program is started for the James Webb Space Telescope, currently projected to launch in 2011.