Source 

Many of you know I've followed this closely when the news came out and even had my Save the Hubble posting.  This is amazing news and the right one by NASA.

Extracts:

The American space agency said today a shuttle crew will be sent in early 2008 to fix and upgrade the 16-year-old telescope, overturning a previous decision made after the 2003 Columbia disaster that killed seven."

"The Hubble has a long list of scientific accomplishments including offering direct observation of the universe as it was 12 billion years ago, discovering black holes at the centre of galaxies and collecting data on the size and age of the universe. Its spectacular images also helped popularize astronomy.

“In many ways, it has been one of the most successful telescopes of all time,” said Carlberg, adding it has provided information for 7,000 scientists, more than half of whom are outside the United States. “And its data has been shared with the world.”

Astronauts on the Hubble mission would add two new camera instruments to the telescope, upgrade aging batteries and stabilizing equipment, add new guidance sensors and repair a light-separating spectrograph.

With camera instruments faltering and other equipment deteriorating, scientists were worried Hubble’s usefulness would diminish over the next few years, well before a new telescope is launched in 2013. The repairs are expected to keep it working until then.

After the Columbia disaster, it was thought the risks of sending a shuttle crew to do repairs were too great, and remaining shuttle missions should focus on completing construction of the International Space Station. But NASA administrator Michael Griffin said he’s convinced the Hubble mission can be conducted after the last three shuttle flights have shown astronauts’ ability to inspect the spacecraft in-flight and make repairs, even in hard-to-reach places.