NASA asks companies how they could boost or service Hubble before it falls from orbit

NASA wants to know whether a private company could keep the Hubble Space Telescope working longer. On October 29, 2026, the agency issued a request for information asking industry about three kinds of mission: lifting Hubble to a higher altitude so it can keep doing science for longer, servicing it to improve what it can do, or bringing it down in a controlled way, or otherwise disposing of it, once its mission ends. Companies have until 3 p.m. EST on Monday, November 30, to respond.

The deadline for any mission is set by the atmosphere. Hubble is sinking slowly, as all spacecraft in low Earth orbit do, because the thin air at its height drags on it, and it has no propulsion system to hold its orbit. NASA's analysis puts its likely re-entry in 2033 or 2034, so the agency expects that any mission would have to fly by 2032. Our explainer on orbital decay describes how drag brings satellites down.

“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 cost-effective ways to extend the life of a spacecraft already in orbit, he added, NASA owes it to taxpayers and scientists to look at them.

Built to be serviced

Hubble was the first space observatory designed to be serviced by astronauts in orbit, according to NASA, and space shuttle crews visited it five times. The first mission, in December 1993, corrected a flaw in the primary mirror that had blurred its early images. The fifth and last, STS-125, launched on May 11, 2009. Its crew installed two new instruments, new batteries and gyroscopes, and a device on the base of the telescope meant to make de-orbiting easier when Hubble is finally decommissioned.

In June 2024, NASA switched Hubble to pointing with a single gyroscope, keeping another in reserve. The agency said the change would keep the telescope observing into the 2030s, with most of its observations unaffected.

A second look at a commercial boost

NASA has explored the idea before. In September 2022 it signed an unfunded Space Act Agreement with SpaceX to study a proposal from SpaceX and the Polaris Program to push Hubble into a higher, more stable orbit with a Dragon spacecraft, at no cost to the government. That December, NASA asked for information on commercial capabilities to reboost a satellite, with Hubble as the demonstration case and again at no cost to the government, and said it had no plans to conduct or fund a dedicated servicing mission. At the time, NASA said a reboost could add multiple years to Hubble's operations.

This year's request is wider. Besides a boost, it asks about servicing that would add capabilities and about a safe re-entry or disposal at the end of Hubble's mission. NASA's announcement does not say whether the agency would pay for any of the options.

Lessons from Swift

The request comes weeks after an unsuccessful boost attempt elsewhere in NASA's fleet. Katalyst Space's LINK spacecraft, launched in July 2026 under a NASA contract to grab the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and lift it, suffered intermittent communication losses and orientation-control problems, and the mission ended without raising Swift's orbit. Swift made its last observation on October 20 after sinking below 275 kilometers (171 miles). NASA said the attempt still gave the agency and Katalyst experience that would help future in-space servicing programs.

Companies answering the request can draw on a growing body of hardware. In an October 29 article, NASA said the 2026 edition of the In-Space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing (ISAM) State of Play, compiled by a team at its Langley Research Center, runs to 368 pages, covering capabilities in 11 areas, from robotic manipulation to refueling. It lists only technology that exists as hardware, either as ground prototypes or in flight demonstrations.

What comes next

“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,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate. NASA described the request as a way to learn more about what industry can offer for in-space servicing. Hubble, a joint project of NASA and the European Space Agency, has been at work for more than three decades.