GREENBELT, Md. (AP) -- Maryland Congressman Steny Hoyer called on NASA Tuesday to go ahead with plans to send a robot to service the Hubble Space Telescope while officials from the space agency said such a mission likely won't happen due to proposed budget cuts.

Hubble, which is operated out of Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, is scheduled for maintenance in late 2007 or 2008. NASA had once planned to repair worn out parts with either a manned space mission or using a robotic arm that would attach itself to the telescope.

However, President Bush eliminated funding for a repair mission in his 2006 budget and only set aside money to send Hubble into a death swoon into the Earth's atmosphere.



Hoyer, a Democrat whose district includes Goddard and many of the 700 NASA employees and private contractors who work on Hubble, said the president's budget overlooked the contributions that the space-borne telescope has made to astronomy. He said funding should be restored for an additional mission.

"This is a very important mission for us to continue and complete," he said during a tour of the Hubble lab, which holds the robotic arm that could be used to fix the telescope.