Re: Sounds Like...
>can't they just make a new Hubble and launch it?
Hubble was super-compromised by it's need to work with Shuttle, and be built from a KH-11 spy satelite. It's not what you would build today.
Arguably neither is JWST, if you assume launches are now relatively cheap and regular you might go for a production line of 2-3 year launch cycle with new instrument technology on a common bus.
For all it's whizzy space technology - the best thing Hubble did in terms of research/$ was the whole Space Telescope Science Institute, the IRAF software infrastructure, the data archive and the funding for post-docs.
It led to a much more efficient processing and publishing than typical astronomy of the time - although ground based has learned a lot from it.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
