NASA's departing chief, Sean O'Keefe, on Friday defended his decision to pursue a robotic repair mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, days after a panel of scientists said a shuttle mission would be better. O'Keefe, who formally tendered his resignation on Monday after three years at the U.S. space agency, indicated he would probably be gone before the final decision is made on how to upgrade the aging but popular orbiting telescope. However, he said he had "no reticence or regrets" about his pursuit of a robotic solution. Design reviews for the robot repair mission in March and August will provide useful data, he said, "rather than guessing." His successor at NASA, who has not yet been named, would presumably make the decision on Hubble's future. O'Keefe discounted a National Academy of Sciences assessment last week that a robotic mission was unlikely to accomplish the needed tasks, and that a human mission -- the fifth to Hubble -- would do a superior job. He said those who doubt that a robotic repair can work are like the critics who questioned whether Hubble would ever offer usable scientific data, due to a flawed main mirror on the telescope. The mirror was fixed by shuttle astronauts in 1993. --More 2302 Local Time 2002 GMT
