Hst and jwst: Present and future

Abstract

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has had a transformative impact on science, the science community, and the public around the world. As HST completes its 17th year of operations, NASA is preparing to send astronauts to service Hubble a fifth time in order to refurbish critical systems, install a new generation of powerful instruments, and possibly repair instruments that have currently failed. This mission is planned to extend Hubble’s operational life until 2014, potentially overlapping the initial operations of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). In this paper I review the impact and status of HST and the promise of JWST and beyond.