The Hubble Space Telescope Is Sinking. NASA Is Looking for Ways to Keep It Afloat

The Hubble Space Telescope, a national icon that has fundamentally transformed humanity's view of the universe, is facing an inevitable decline. After more than three decades in low Earth orbit, it is being dragged back toward the planet by atmospheric drag. Unlike many modern satellites, Hubble lacks a propulsion system to adjust its own orbit, leaving it on a path that NASA estimates will likely lead to a controlled re-entry into Earth's atmosphere by 2033 or 2034.

To delay this conclusion, NASA has issued a formal Request for Information. The agency is actively seeking proposals from the private sector for 'in-space servicing' of the famous telescope. This would likely involve raising Hubble's altitude to extend its operational lifespan, but the agency is also open to industry suggestions for managing a safe and controlled reentry or disposal of the telescope while still in orbit. Space companies can also propose upgrades to enhance the telescope's functionality in its remaining years.

The telescope was designed with the expectation that astronauts would perform repairs and upgrades in orbit. Since its launch in 1990, a total of five service missions have been carried out. The last of these missions was canceled after the space shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003. However, NASA later determined that the benefits of servicing Hubble outweighed the risks of a final mission, and in 2009 a crew took measures, such as replacing the battery, to extend the telescope's lifespan.

This is also not the first time NASA has considered private-sector resources for raising the Hubble Space Telescope's orbit. In September 2022, NASA entered into a nonfunding partnership agreement with SpaceX to investigate the possibility of using the company's Dragon spacecraft to move Hubble into a more stable orbit. However, according to NASA's announcement at the time, the agency had no plans to conduct or fund the service mission itself; the study was intended solely to assess commercial feasibility.

Meanwhile, NASA commissioned the private company Katalyst Space Technologies in September 2025 to perform an orbital raise for the Swift Observatory, which was experiencing faster-than-expected orbital decay. However, the company's spacecraft, launched in July 2026, suffered an attitude control malfunction, forcing the mission to be abandoned. On November 4, Swift reentered the atmosphere over Indonesia. These events underscore the technical challenges and risks involved in such orbital maneuvers.

The problems facing the Hubble Space Telescope are not limited to its drop in altitude. The spacecraft itself is also experiencing malfunctions. In June 2024, NASA announced that it would transition the Hubble Space Telescope to a new operating mode using only one of the six gyros on board to assess the telescope's orientation. After more than three decades in space, only three of the gyros were operational, and one of those was starting to return abnormal readings. The other remaining functional gyro is now being kept in a ready state for future use.

NASA estimates that a mission to raise the telescope's orbit will need to be carried out by 2032. In an announcement made in 2022, NASA also explained that if the Hubble Space Telescope could be raised to a higher, more stable orbit, it could continue to observe the cosmos for several more years.

The agency's administrator emphasized the value of extending Hubble's life. 'If there are innovative and cost-effective ways to extend the life of an asset already in 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.' The next step is for NASA to review the proposals from commercial space companies and determine the feasibility of a private-sector mission to save the iconic telescope.