here

"This was the most important thing the shuttle would do in its remaining lifetime," he said. "Most of its other missions are science-fair stuff. The Hubble is a milestone in human intellectual history, and this decision is a crime against science.

"What's happening is that a bunch of bureaucrats are wanting to feel decisive, to show they can make the tough calls to support the president's moon and Mars program. They'll say: 'Much as it might rend our hearts, we're willing to give this up.' That's all a crock," Zubrin said. "If the first thing this new space policy does is murder Hubble, then it's born with the mark of Cain on it." ...

..."The goal of the shuttle is not safety, it's mission success. That's like saying we can only go to Mars if there are six rescue ships available and no chance of launch problems, or Columbus saying, 'I'm willing to sail across the Atlantic only if you promise me there won't be any storms,'" Zubrin said.

Then there's this guy:

Space policy analyst John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org sees dark motivations behind the move. He argues that President Bush has made clear what will be abandoned in the short term, but has scheduled non-military missions like colonizing Mars far over the political horizon so that succeeding administrations can cancel them without controversy.

"I think it is sort of symptomatic of this administration's orderly dismantling of the American space program," he said.

He sounds like a conspiracy nut but he's got an interesting web site.