NASA is asking private companies to save Hubble — what would a rescue actually have to do?

NASA’s October 29, 2026 Request for Information asks companies how they could boost Hubble to 600 km or higher, service it to extend its life, or guide it to a safe controlled re-entry. Drag is lowering its orbit about 9 miles a year, so any rescue must fly by 2032.

Short answer: NASA has asked private companies to pitch how they would save the Hubble Space Telescope. In a Request for Information issued on October 29, 2026 and announced on October 30, NASA asked commercial firms to describe how they could boost Hubble to an orbit of 600 kilometres (about 373 miles) or higher, service it to extend its working life, or — if rescue is not possible — guide it to a safe, controlled re-entry.Why now: Hubble has no engine of its own, so it cannot correct its orbit. Thin traces of atmosphere drag on it constantly, lowering its orbit by roughly 9 miles a year, and current analysis puts its most likely re-entry in 2033–2034.

Work backwards from that date and any rescue mission has to fly by about 2032 — which is why NASA is asking for ideas now, while there is still time to build one. A boost up to 600 km could buy Hubble as much as 25 more years of science.What a rescue would actually have to do:1. Reach Hubble and match its orbit, then capture a telescope that was never designed to be grabbed by a modern commercial spacecraft.2.

Do one of three jobs: push it up to 600 km or higher, service it — Hubble has been running on a single gyroscope since June 2024, so its pointing hardware is living on borrowed time — or attach a propulsion unit that can steer it to a controlled re-entry over an empty ocean area.3. Understand what this is: an RFI is a request for ideas, not a contract award. NASA is gathering options before deciding whether to fund anything.4.

Mind the deadline: company responses are due by 3 p.m. EST on Monday, November 30, 2026.Watch the NASA Goddard 360° tour of Hubble alongside this guide to see the telescope a rescue crew would have to work on.Pro tip: when you read “NASA asks companies to save Hubble,” read it as the start of a competition of ideas — no rescuer has been chosen, and no mission is funded yet.