Your Girl Is Lovely, Hubble

Astronomers are this week celebrating the 15th year in space for the Hubble space telescope - perhaps the most successful astronomy mission ever.

Since it was launched on 24 April 1990, Hubble has produced over 700,000 images of the Universe and there is a long list of scientific achievements made by scientists using the telescope.

Hubble has helped astronomers calculate the age of the Universe (13.7 billion years old), has helped confirm the existence of dark energy and has gathered evidence that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating.

But despite all of this, celebrations are being overshadowed by uncertainty over the future of the orbiting observatory.

To the outrage of many astronomers, Nasa's previous administrator Sean O'Keefe cancelled all plans to repair the telescope.

But now Hubble has been thrown a lifeline: the agency's new chief, Mike Griffin, has pledged to re-visit the decision.

Without servicing of its fading batteries and gyroscopes, it will probably stop taking pictures by 2007 or 2008.