NASA has chosen a Fort Myers Beach company to develop technology for an upcoming mission to repair the aging Hubble Space Telescope.

Robotics Workspace Technologies, Inc. designs software and hardware for robotics.

The project deals with a planned trip in 2007 to repair Hubble’s navigation systems.

Chairman & CEO – Walter Weisel (WEISS-uhl) – says—even though NASA plans to phase out Hubble—the repair mission is a must.

“They actually have to, because it’s losing altitude…and they’d love for it to fall in a seven mile hole in the ocean in the Pacific, but without control of it, there’s hardly a good way to bring it down.”

Without the navigational repairs, Hubble could fall to earth and hit a population center.

The 2007 mission depends on the integrity of the Space Shuttle fleet. So, Weisel says he breathed a sigh of relief at the successful return of Discovery…

“Even if things had gone awry, which thank god they didn’t, we believe that we still would’ve flown that mission. But of course since it turned out the way it did, we see a whole lot more work ahead of us.”

Weisel says NASA doesn’t have another choice for now…because the space shuttle fleet won’t be decommissioned until 2010. Robotic Workspace Technologies employs 6 people at its Fort Myers Beach office.