Advanced Technology Large-Aperture Space Telescope Advanced Technology Large-Aperture Space Telescope The Advanced Technology Large-Aperture Space Telescope (ATLAST) is an 8– to 16.8–meter UV-optical-NIR space telescope proposed by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), the science operations center for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). If launched, ATLAST would be a replacement and successor for the HST, with the ability to obtain spectroscopic and imaging observations of astronomical objects in the ultraviolet, optical, and infrared wavelengths, but with substantially better resolution than either HST or the planned James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Like JWST, ATLAST would be launched to the Sun-Earth Lagrange point. ATLAST is envisioned as
Space Shuttle program from the two destroyed orbiters. The Space Shuttle program was extended several times beyond its originally envisioned 15-year life span because of the delays in building the United States space station in low Earth orbit—a project which eventually evolved into the International Space Station. It was formally scheduled for mandatory retirement in 2010 in accord with the directives President George W. Bush issued on January 14, 2004 in his Vision for Space Exploration. A$2.5 billion spending provision allowing NASA to fly the Space Shuttle beyond its then-scheduled retirement in 2010 passed the Congress in April 2009, although neither NASA nor