NASA Is Asking for Hubble Rescue Ideas Again, and the Last Call Went Nowhere

NASA is again asking the public and industry for ideas on how to keep the Hubble Space Telescope from falling out of orbit. The telescope loses altitude gradually as drag from the thin upper atmosphere pulls on it, and without a boost, it will eventually reenter.

The agency made a similar request four years ago, and the responses did not lead to a workable plan. Hubble has been operating since 1990 and remains one of the most productive science instruments ever built, which is why the question of its future keeps coming back.

The new solicitation suggests NASA still has not settled on a practical way to lift the observatory. The source material does not spell out the format of this round, the level of detail the agency wants, or how quickly it intends to choose a path, so those answers remain open.

Hubble was designed to be serviced by astronauts, and its last crewed servicing mission ended in 2009. Any reboost concept would have to overcome that gap, whether through a robotic spacecraft or some other method that has not been tested on a telescope of this size.