A Glitch In First Senate Hearing From Outer Space

CAPITOL HILL (WUSA) -- It was billed as taking part in the first Senate hearing from outer space. But it didn't go quite as planned.

"Hello to all of our astronauts on Space Shuttle Atlantis," said Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md). But within minutes, the Senate subcommittee lost the audio from the shuttle.

Despite NASA's amazing feats in space, communicating with Senators on Capitol Hill was a challenge.

"Listen Space Shuttle Atlantis, we're having a horrible time hearing you," said Mikulski.

Senate aides scrambled to fix the problem.It must have been a connection here on Earth, because the astronauts were loud and clear on NASA-TV.

They downplayed the risks they took during five spacewalks to the fix the Hubble Space Telescope at an orbit littered with deadly space junk.

"We all take risks every day, driving up 295 to Baltimore entails a risk," said spacewalker John Grunsfeld.

NASA plans to fly the shuttle eight more times to the International Space Station, and then retire it. The future of American astronauts in space after that is murky. The Bush Administration wanted to go back to the Moon, and then on to Mars. But President Obama has created an independent panel to determine if that makes sense, and whether we can afford it.

Senator Mikulski may have been the one person most responsible for this mission to Hubble. And she's not ruling out another one.

"Hubble's like me," said Senator Mikulski. "It's going for another term, and we'll go another six years and see where we are."