NASA is asking for ideas to rescue Hubble

NASA is again seeking commercial proposals to keep the Hubble Space Telescope operating, asking companies to describe how they could raise its orbit, service it, or guide it into a controlled reentry. Responses to the request for information are due November 30. NASA wants a mission that would not harm the telescope and could take place by 2032, with the contractor supplying the launch vehicle, servicing craft, operations, and any crew. Hubble is now about 470 kilometers above Earth and is expected to reenter around 2033 or 2034 if left alone. Raising it to 600 kilometers could extend its orbital life by at least 25 years. NASA has not committed funding or agreed to buy a mission; it is testing industry interest, likely costs, and whether a feasible plan can be delivered in time.

An earlier call for proposals in 2022 produced eight responses, but NASA declined to proceed in 2024, judging the concepts - including a crewed SpaceX plan - too preliminary. Since then, commercial satellite-servicing capabilities have advanced, and a recent NASA-funded attempt to rescue the Swift telescope demonstrated that a relatively modest mission can reach a target, though technical problems stopped it from approaching closely enough to intervene. Hubble’s greater value and complexity would warrant more time and money. A crewed mission now appears unlikely, while robotic companies may be interested. Preserving Hubble matters because its visible- and ultraviolet-light observations are not replicated by Webb or the planned Roman telescope; a successor with comparable capabilities may not arrive until the 2040s.