NASA asks industry how to extend Hubble’s working life, with responses due November 30
NASA’s October 29 request seeks information on boosting, servicing or eventually disposing of Hubble. Companies have until 3 p.m. EST on November 30 to respond, according to NASA’s October 30 announcement. NASA anticipates that a mission would need to take place by 2032; its current reentry estimate is 2033–2034.
NASA is asking companies what they could do to keep the Hubble Space Telescope working longer, including raising its orbit or servicing it in space. The agency’s request for information remains open until 3 p.m. EST on November 30. It is an early assessment of commercial capabilities, rather than an announcement that a servicing mission has been selected.
News date: 2 November 2026 / Facts checked: 2 November 2026
An information request before a mission decision
For American space companies, the opening is a chance to explain what their existing or proposed capabilities could deliver. NASA lists three possible areas: lifting Hubble into a higher orbit, servicing it to enhance its capabilities, and arranging a safe controlled reentry or orbital disposal when its science mission ends.
Those options have different purposes. A boost could extend the time available for observations, while end-of-life disposal would address what happens after the telescope’s useful mission. The announcement does not name a selected contractor, an approved launch date or a mission price.
Why the orbit matters
Atmospheric drag gradually lowers Hubble’s orbit, and the telescope has no propulsion system with which to maintain it. NASA says its analysis places likely atmospheric reentry in the 2033–2034 timeframe and that a mission would therefore need to happen by 2032. These are planning estimates, not a claim that a new flight has been scheduled.
Hubble is a NASA–European Space Agency project. Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland manages the telescope and mission operations, while the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore conducts its science operations for NASA.
A long-serving telescope, an unresolved next step
The telescope continues to produce science after more than three decades in orbit. The current process asks whether commercial servicing can offer a practical way to extend that work. NASA’s October 30 account of the request is the basis for this report; it does not establish that every option will be pursued.
The photograph accompanying this story shows Hubble after its second servicing mission in February 1997. It is an archive image, rather than a photograph of the commercial mission now being considered.
