It's a bit light on hardware details but is certainly an interesting read:
www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-s...JQAsT6UDV_story.html

I dont think they'll ever see space. they'll become obsolete before too long.

It would be a perfect opportunity for SpaceX's Dragon to put up a satellite, since its "Free" and there isn't much to loose if it fails!!

I agree, Dave. It's pretty unlikely that they'll ever be used given the James Webb and other works in progress. It is interesting, however, to see that these things do exist and to consider the vast amount of cash invested in their creation.

If nothing else, the mirrors and parts could be useful educational tools; the second Hubble mirror is still in the Smithsonian inspiring future opticians and engineers.

Graham wrote:

It would be a perfect opportunity for SpaceX's Dragon to put up a satellite, since its "Free" and there isn't much to loose if it fails!!

I suspect that running the telescope for any period of time, not to mention equipping it with instrumentation, would be cost prohibitive for a private company. One would suspect that it would make more sense to fabricate a new telescope from scratch given that the 'gifts' are, as Dave suggested, most likely no longer state of the art. Glass fabrication alone seems to have come a long way over the past few decades.

The Dragon is a crew and cargo vehicle - the Falcon series of rockets are the lifters.

New information! Looks like feasibility studies have been carried out to determine the potential uses of using one of the satellites as an exoplanet hunter and for darkmatter study:

www.space.com/21434-nasa-spy-satellite-t...st.html?cmpid=514630

Hope the bump isn't too annoying, seemed like a better idea than making a new topic.