NASA Seeks Industry Proposals to Boost or Service Aging Hubble Telescope

NASA issued a Request for Information on October 29 to gauge commercial industry capabilities for in-space servicing of the Hubble Space Telescope. The move opens the door to a potential mission to extend the life of the 35-year-old observatory, which is projected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere in the early 2030s.

Hubble's altitude is slowly decreasing over time because of atmospheric drag, a condition common to all spacecraft in low Earth orbit. The telescope does not have a propulsion system to maintain its own orbit, and analysis predicts it is likely to re-enter the atmosphere in the 2033 to 2034 timeframe. NASA anticipates that a servicing or boost mission would need to take place by 2032.

The Request for Information seeks commercial interest in three areas: potentially conducting a mission to boost Hubble to a higher altitude to extend its science lifetime, servicing Hubble to enhance its capabilities, or performing a safe, controlled re-entry into Earth's atmosphere or orbital disposal at the end of the mission. The request is available online and will remain open for responses until 3 p.m. EST on Monday, November 30.

"Hubble still has important science ahead of it, and we should be looking at every reasonable opportunity to keep it delivering for as long as possible," said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. "If there are innovative and cost-effective ways to extend the life of an asset already on orbit, we owe it to the American taxpayer and the scientific community to explore them. Extending Hubble's life would mean more discoveries, more science, and more opportunities to expand our understanding of the universe."

Nicky Fox, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, pointed to recent advances in industry capabilities. "Hubble is a national icon that has fundamentally changed how humanity views our universe for more than 35 years," Fox said. "Commercial industry has rapidly evolved in recent years to offer new capabilities for in-space satellite capture and servicing. Given the time we have until Hubble's anticipated re-entry, we are eager to explore the breadth of possibilities to boost Hubble to a higher orbit while we develop the flagship mission to follow."

Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations, with Lockheed Martin Space in Denver supporting mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.

NASA frames the effort as a way to extend the observatory's scientific output while the agency develops a flagship mission to follow Hubble, as stated by Fox. Isaacman emphasized the value of extending an asset already on orbit for both taxpayers and the scientific community.

Responses to the Request for Information are due by 3 p.m. EST on November 30. Any resulting boost or servicing mission would need to take place by 2032, ahead of Hubble's anticipated re-entry in the 2033 to 2034 timeframe.