NASA has begun planning for an all-robot servicing mission to the ailing Hubble Space Telescope, United Press International has learned.

Based on months of analysis conducted by teams of engineers at Goddard Spaceflight Center in Maryland, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe has decided to move to the planning stage for the robotic flight, with an eye toward a critical design review next year, when agency officials will determine if the mission should receive the final go-ahead.

We are pressing on to the next step of a robotic servicing mission with instrument replacement, O'Keefe told UPI.

Planning for the flight does not guarantee it will be approved, however.

O'Keefe praised Goddard workers Monday for their hard work in researching the possibility that a robot craft could refurbish the orbiting telescope, which suffered an important instrument failure last week and whose future operations are in jeopardy from impending failures of its gyroscopes and batteries.

A Hubble servicing mission by the space shuttle was canceled by O'Keefe last January because of safety concerns.

To pay for the robotic mission, which could occur in as early as 2006, O'Keefe said he would ask Congress for an amendment to his Fiscal Year 2005 budget request, which remains pending in the House and Senate.