A couple of weeks ago, the famous Hubble Space Telescope developed an equipment malfunction that prevented it from returning data to earth. Although the equipment had been operating contiuously since 1990, and in spite of the fact that there is already a spare part on board, some have been calling for the venerable spacecraft to be put out to pasture. As you might expect, much of the argument comes down to money.
The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990, at a cost of about $1.6 billon. Since that time another $8.4 billion has been invested. To service the telescope this year will cost another $900 million dollars. A new infrared telescope due to be launched in 2013 is estimated to cost $4.5 billion, so the Hubble repairs are a lot cheaper than a new optical telescope would be. In addition, it would extend the Hubble's life expectancy anohter six or seven years.
I have seen several accounts of who made the decision, but recently a "Top Ten" of Hubble images has been available. You can see all ten at the link below, but I've copied a couple of my favorites below. 
In 1995, after just five years in operation, NASA also announced the "Top Ten" discoveries made by Hubble:
1*Offered the first conclusive evidence for the existence of immense black holes, millions or billions of times the mass of Earth's Sun. 2* Showed that the universe might be much younger than had been previously thought. This was accomplished by calculating the universe's expansion rate based on an accurate Hubble distance measurement to a remote galaxy. 3* Gave the first direct visual evidence that the universe is evolving as predicted in Big Bang cosmology, by resolving the shapes of the farthest galaxies ever seen. 4* Discovered that quasars, very distant and remarkably bright objects, are even more mysterious than commonly thought because many do not dwell in the cores of galaxies, but are isolated in space. 5* Suggested that dark matter in the universe is more exotic than previously thought, by finding that nature doesn't make enough of the extremely small Red Dwarf stars that were once a leading candidate for the universe's "missing mass." 6* Supported the Big Bang theory by refining estimates of the amount of deuterium in space, an element created in the initial cosmic fireball that gave birth to the universe. 7* Solved the mystery of intergalactic clouds of hydrogen by showing that they are really gigantic halos of galaxies. 8* Implied that planets, and presumably life, might be abundant in the universe by discovering disks of dust that might be embryonic planetary systems around young stars. 9* Provided important details and surprising findings of the spectacular collisions of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter last year. 10* Revealed dynamic weather changes on nearly all the planets with a clarity once attainable only with spacecraft flybys. Scientists found that most planets' atmospheres are much more active than previously believed, and the ability of Hubble to 'revisit' the planets allows frequent monitoring similar to Earth weather satellites. http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/1995/95-56.txt
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