Hubble Telescope Servicing Mission 4 has been approved, and is scheduled to take place on August 7th 2008, this mission could extend the telescopes life for another 5 years or more, and With the aid of this mission, the telescope will be able to peer further into the universe at wavelengths from the ultraviolet to infra-red which is not possible from ground based telescope, because ultraviolet light from space is absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere.

Without this mission, Earth's gravity would of slowly been pulled Hubble towards the earth to burn up in the atmosphere.

Full story can be found at the link below

http://hubblesite.org/servicing_mission_4/

Great news, 5 more years would be excellent.....

Any idea what is planned to replace it with when Hubbles use bye date has finally passed?

would be cool if they could build a telescope lens that comes in sections but doesn't effect the optics in anyway. totally seamless. The reason I say this is because they say in order to see something as small as the flag on the lunars surface, you would need an optical lens the size of a football field to view it from Earth. and since the Hubble is only a few thousand miles above Earth, it would still need a lens the same size.

Imagine assembling such a large thing in space. I'm curious if they will be able to one day build a lens so big on earth and launch it into space with the aid of new technology.

The James Webb Space Telescope, will be the standing replacement of Hubble, but it will not have the ultraviolet capabilities of Hubble so the World Space Observatory will have to be used along side the James Webb.

These links explain it in more detail, but in part answer to Trogs thoughts the JWST will have an unfolding mirror six and a half metres wide, and a sun shield the size of a tennis court.

http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/about.html

http://www.seas.columbia.edu/~ah297/un-esa/wso.html

Oooh nice post -looks very promising.
Cheers Karl

With respect to the Hubbel.
James Mather, JWST project scientists.
Said quote "The James Webb Space Telescope is complimentary, not a replacement."
Perhaps we will see something like TROG suggested, coming forth.