> The NRO offered NASA multiple Hubbles, but the cost to retrofit them was outside of NASA's budget. Well, yes - that's kind of the point. If NASA didn't have

> The NRO offered NASA multiple Hubbles, but the cost to retrofit them was outside of NASA's budget. Well, yes - that's kind of the point. If NASA didn't have the Shuttle's fully amortized $1.5B/launch cost weighing it down they'd have been able to do a lot more things. > Also, how are you getting that new Hubble off the ground without a shuttle? Who knows what rocket NASA should have gone with. But the easy answer is: they could have kept Saturn V around for the few really big payloads they needed it for. Another option is the Delta IV Heavy. It's longest fairing is just a little bit short of what's needed for Hubble. I'm sure a 1-off xl fairing would be quite expensive, but since the difference between a Delta IV Heavy launch and a Shuttle launch is $1B, there's quite a bit of room in the budget to work with.