NASA issued a request for information on October 29 for ways to rescue the Hubble Space Telescope, which launched in April 1990 in partnership with the European Space Agency. The observatory is operating well but faces reentry into Earth's atmosphere around 2033 or 2034 due to orbital drag.
The agency seeks proposals for in-space servicing capabilities. These could include boosting Hubble's orbit or enhancing its capabilities. Any servicing mission would need to launch by 2032. The RFI also allows for alternative scenarios, including a controlled reentry or orbital disposal.
Hubble has been serviced five times by astronauts on space shuttle missions, most recently in 2009. The observatory helped demonstrate that the universe's expansion is accelerating, a discovery that won the Nobel Prize. Its observations have led to publication of at least 23,000 scientific papers. Astronomers request about seven times as much observing time as is available each year.
NASA administrator Jared Isaacman, who took office in December 2025, said in an October 30 statement that Hubble's science return means the agency should "be looking at every reasonable opportunity to keep it delivering for as long as possible" — especially if servicing would cost less than launching a replacement mission. Isaacman noted in an October 30 post on X that NASA had previously considered "a far lower-cost solution" to keep the observatory flying.
In 2022, billionaire tech entrepreneur Isaacman had proposed using SpaceX hardware for a Hubble-servicing mission, but NASA declined at that time, citing possible risks to the healthy observatory. Earlier this year, NASA worked with Katalyst Space Technologies on a $30 million mission to boost the orbit of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, which faces the same reentry problem. That mission launched successfully this summer but control issues prevented the LINK spacecraft from meeting up with Swift.