NRO gave NASA two Hubble-sized space telescopes!
The National Reconnaissance Office, one of the US's most secretive government agencies, just gave NASA two spare orbital telescopes, or as the NRO calls them, "spy satellites". These two are sitting on the ground, and NASA could refurbish them, put new cameras in them with lots of megapixels, and send them up if the budget allowed it. They each have a primary mirror about as large as Hubble's.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/nasa-gets-military-spy-telescopes-for-astronomy/2012/06/04/gJQAsT6UDV_story.html
http://www.nature.com/news/the-telescopes-that-came-in-from-the-cold-1.11511
This gives me two thoughts: One, that NASA now has some damned cool toys to play with - those telescopes can be used to do some awesome science. Two, what was the NRO doing with those telescopes? IIRC, when astronomers did the math to figure out what they could image on the ground if Hubble was pointed at Earth, they calculated based on the distances involved and the size of Hubble's primary mirror that it could pick out details about 5-10 centimeters across. Not quite enough to read the license plate on your car, but they could certainly tell the make and model.
The Hubble itself was not designed to be pointed at Earth, but the NRO's telescopes which are about as big and as powerful, WERE. And these are two telescopes that the NRO decided they no longer wanted, and generously gave to NASA, which makes me wonder what they've got in active service...
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Someone could tell you, but then you'd have to be disappeared - In the interest of national security, of course.
