Re: Great news....until.
The Hubble used the KH-11 platform - the Keyhole program came first and without it leveraging that technology heavily there likely would not have been a Hubble. The focal length for Hubble was a lot longer, but the 2.4m main mirror assembly, location of instrument bay, etc. is identical to KH-11.
The NRO even gave NASA two "leftover" KH-11s about 10 years ago, with the idea they could be retrofitted as space telescopes. One has been outfitted to fulfill the WFIRST (now called Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope) mission and is set to launch in a few years. Because the KH-11 has a shorter focal length its field of view is 100x larger than Hubble, but for the WFIRST mission that was considered an advantage.
The other KH-11 remains in storage.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
