I feel privileged and honored to have flown. It's been a tremendous ride, looking back on the legacy and accomplishments, like the Hubble telescope and the launching of the International Space Station in 1998.
I expect New Horizons will see more that Hubble cannot see.
I will fight in the United States Senate this year to fund a servicing mission to Hubble by 2008, a mission that would potentially increase Hubble's power and efficiency by a factor of 10 and allow us to look back almost to the beginning of the universe.
Hubble is very close to my heart, and going back to Hubble, because I was there once already in 1993, is really a great privilege for me.
The Next Generation Space Telescope, which will be located much further away from the Earth than the Hubble Space Telescope presently is, will also explore the infrared part of the spectrum.
That's what Hubble can do for us. It can tell us whether the universe is expanding forever or if one day it's going to come back together.
The Hubble Telescope can see the farthest galaxies. The Webb Telescope will see the farthest stars.
When Hubble was launched, it became clear very shortly thereafter that there was a problem with the optics.The mirror was not quite the right shape. And the one program that I had really been looking forward to doing with Hubble was studying outer planets in our solar system, the planets Uranus and Neptune.
Hubble is absolutely unique; we must have a telescope in space to complement the very large telescopes on the ground.
Together, NASA and Hubble are opening new vistas on the universe.
