posted 02-12-2017 07:02 PM               

The discussions are still preliminary, no specific plans have been drafted and senior White House aides or administration advisers currently overseeing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration could veto the concept. Decisions about any potentially major NASA initiative await the appointment of a new agency head, according to industry and government officials.

But deliberations about sending a spacecraft to link up with NASA's pioneering orbiting telescope — comparable to five earlier missions by the now-retired space shuttle fleet stretching back to 1993 — illustrate the Trump team's guiding principles when it comes to space investments. Industry and transition officials agree the focus is on seeking dramatic but relatively inexpensive space projects that can be readily understood by average Americans...

Over the weekend, a company representative said a Hubble mission would allow valuable research to continue and "inspire new generations of explorers and researchers." He said that Dream Chaser was "designed from the beginning to be a multi-mission orbital transportation system" eventually targeting "servicing, repair and assembly of technology" during space flight. "They have always been part of our vision," he said, and Sierra Nevada "continues to actively evaluate a future on-orbit servicing variant."