The Hubble Origins Probe (HOP) was a proposal for an orbital telescope made in 2005 in response to the first cancellation of the fourth Hubble Space Telescope (HST) servicing mission. It would have used an Atlas V rocket or similar launch vehicle to launch a much lighter, unaberrated mirror and optical telescope assembly, using the instruments that had already been built for SM4, along with a new wide-field imager. It would have cost between $700 million and $1 billion. Funding for the mission was never allocated; in February 2005, Sean O'Keefe, the NASA administrator who had cancelled SM4, resigned. Michael D. Griffin, NASA administrator after O'Keefe, reinstated the servicing missions, making HOP redundant.
References
External links Hubble Origins Probe Replacing Hubble by Francis Reddy on astronomy.com AIP Bulletin of Science Policy News article, "Witnesses Question Priority of a Hubble Servicing Mission" Archived 2006-10-04 at the Wayback Machine NASA Mission Pages: Service Mission 4 (SM4) Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Service Mission 4 (SM4) Crew Training video (archive.com)
