NASA Asks for Ideas to Save Hubble. The Catch Is in the Budget.

NASA has asked companies how they would lift, repair or safely bring down the Hubble Space Telescope, with answers due November 30 and no money yet set aside for a mission. ^[1][2]

The agency issued the formal Request for Information on October 29, 2026. ^[2] It is a call for ideas, not a contract. NASA has not committed to buying or funding anything, and Ars Technica reports that the agency has no funding allocated to procure a reboost or servicing mission. ^[2]

The request lists three approaches. A company could raise Hubble to an orbit of at least 600 kilometres, service it to improve or extend what it can do, or capture it for controlled re-entry or disposal in orbit. ^[1][2] Whoever bids would supply the launch vehicle and the servicing spacecraft, and a crew if the plan needs one. NASA adds one condition: nothing may harm Hubble. Any boost or servicing mission is expected to happen by 2032. ^[1][2]

A telescope with no engine

Hubble circles Earth in the thin upper edge of the atmosphere, which drags on it and pulls it down a little at a time. It has no propulsion system of its own to push back. ^[1][2]

NASA puts the odds of Hubble re-entering by September 2032 at 10 percent, and at 50 percent by December 2033. Its stated likely window, if nothing changes, is 2033 to 2034. ^[1] So 2032 is the date by which someone would have to act, not the date the telescope falls. A rescue mission takes years to design, build and launch, which is why the clock matters now.

Hubble last got a lift in 2002, during a Space Shuttle servicing visit. The final shuttle servicing flight, in 2009, did not raise its orbit, and the shuttle fleet retired in 2011. ^[1][2] The one vehicle built to reach Hubble has been gone for 15 years.

Why anyone would bother

Hubble launched in 1990 and astronauts serviced it five times. ^[4] Its data have fed more than 23,000 peer-reviewed papers, according to NASA figures reported by Space.com. ^[1][4] It helped establish that the expansion of the universe is speeding up, and it took the Eagle Nebula picture known as the Pillars of Creation. ^[4]

The scientific case rests on something newer telescopes lack. Researchers quoted by New Scientist say Hubble still delivers high-resolution ultraviolet imaging that the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA's Nancy Grace Roman telescope and the European Space Agency's Euclid do not match. ^[1] Earth's atmosphere blocks most ultraviolet light, so it can only be studied from space.

Nothing planned fills the gap soon. According to New Scientist, the proposed Ultraviolet Explorer would have one-tenth of Hubble's resolution in the relevant part of the spectrum. The Habitable Worlds Observatory may match Hubble's ability in the 2040s. ^[1]

Set those dates side by side. If Hubble comes down in NASA's likely window of 2033 to 2034, and the Habitable Worlds Observatory only catches up in the 2040s, astronomers face a gap of several years at best with no telescope doing what Hubble does in ultraviolet. That is our arithmetic from the published dates, not a NASA estimate.

The advisory panel and the last attempt

A NASA advisory panel is working on advice about Hubble's future and has not yet submitted it, according to Thomas Haworth of Queen Mary University of London. He said the panel is preparing a strong recommendation for an orbit boost. ^[1] That is one researcher's account of a panel's work in progress, not a NASA position.

The agency has been here before. It asked for ideas in 2022 and received eight responses. In 2024, after reviewing them, NASA decided not to pursue a reboost mission. ^[2]

In 2022 NASA also signed an unfunded agreement with SpaceX and the Polaris Program to study whether a Dragon spacecraft could safely rendezvous with Hubble and raise it. NASA said then that the study was not a plan to conduct or fund a servicing mission. ^[3] No mission followed.

A fresh example of how hard this is came this year. NASA-funded Katalyst Space tried to raise the orbit of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, but the effort failed after the spacecraft developed control problems. ^[1][2] Swift is a far smaller observatory than Hubble. Its failed rescue shows how difficult it is to reach an ageing spacecraft that was never designed to be grabbed.

What is still open

The request leaves controlled disposal on the table, so it is not yet a decision to rescue anything. Even a successful boost would not make Hubble young. The telescope is ageing, would still need ground support and possibly more servicing, and the bill would compete with other science, researchers say. ^[1]

No one yet knows how many companies will answer, or whether any will offer a credible plan with a realistic schedule and cost. NASA has not said what a mission might cost or how it would pay. Nor has anyone shown that a spacecraft can grip Hubble and raise its orbit without damaging the instruments the mission is meant to save.

The next markers are the November 30 deadline, the proposals that arrive, and what the advisory panel finally recommends. After that comes the harder question, the one the 2022 and 2024 rounds ended on: whether NASA is willing to pay.