In a suggested cost-saving move, the committee suggests that the instruments planned for the canceled missions could be flown instead on the National Polar-orbiting OperatioNPOESSvironmental Satellite System (NPOESS), which is being built for a 2010 launch.
In his presentation to the planetary science subcommittee, James L. Green, director of NASA's planetary science division, said that to make up for the new overrun, the agency could delay or cancel missions like Grail and Ladee, which are to visit the Moon, or Juno, a return to Jupiter and its moons.
But, citing security concerns, the commission canceled its mission at the last minute.
"If I [myself] planned this mission, we would have either been successful or I would have canceled the mission," he added in a revelation that the mission was paralyzed by contradictions and pitfalls because of the ill-planning.
On 16 January 2004, then-NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe canceled the mission, as well as any future missions to Hubble, citing safety constraints imposed by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board.
A veteran astronaut of four shuttle missions, including two Hubble servicing missions, Grunsfeld had devoted years to Hubble, and was very disappointed when O'Keefe canceled the mission.
Because of the delays and cost overruns, NASA canceled the mission last year.
The general who soldiers said had canceled that mission did not reply to a written request to be interviewed.
Prisoners who especially worried counterterrorism officials included some accused of being assassins for Al Qaeda, operatives for a canceled suicide mission and detainees who vowed to their interrogators that they would wreak revenge against America.
The following year, then-NASA chief Sean O'Keefe canceled the mission because of safety concerns.
