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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2018
It is a particular pleasure to be here tonight, the degree of pleasure having been heightened by the un-accustomed luxury of participating, albeit rather passively, in the scientific discussions of the past days. The net result of the listening is an increased conviction that astronomy offers, along with biology, the best prospects of all the sciences for major increases both in our comprehension of nature and, simultaneously, in our awe at natures complexities and energies. To the degree that the Space Telescope brings those prospects to fruition, it will have to rank as one of the premier astronomical tools of the 1980’s and 90’s. But I don’t need to preach its merits to this audience. What I’d rather do is to give you some of my views on a topic commonly thought to be an “issue” and which has risen to a state of high visibility within NASA in large part on account of the Space Telescope and its operation. That “issue” revolves around the scientist who happens to work in NASA.