NASA turns to private space firms to extend the life of Hubble or steer it safely toward reentry

NASA is seeking commercial proposals to either save or safely dispose of the Hubble Space Telescope, issuing a Request for Information with responses due November 30. The agency wants to evaluate industry capabilities to capture the observatory and boost it to an altitude of at least 373 miles (600 km), service it to enhance operations, or conduct a controlled disposal before the spacecraft naturally falls back to Earth. [1][2]

Hubble has lost altitude steadily since Space Shuttle Columbia conducted the last orbit reboost in 2002. Lacking an onboard propulsion system, the telescope faces an uncontrolled reentry, which NASA estimates has a 10 percent chance of happening by September 2032 and a 50 percent chance by December 2033. Any proposed mission must occur by 2032 and avoid damaging the observatory, potentially taking advantage of a soft-capture mechanism added during the final shuttle servicing flight in 2009. [1][2]

The intervention could keep vital science running, as NASA reports Hubble remains oversubscribed by a 7-to-1 ratio and has no direct successor planned until the Habitable Worlds Observatory potentially arrives in the 2040s. Although the telescope recently switched to operating on a single gyroscope to stretch its life amid budget pressure, NASA has yet to open a formal bidding contest or specify how much funding it might provide. [2]