NASA seeks commercial proposals to save Hubble from reentry
NASA's new RFI asks companies to propose boosting, servicing, or safely deorbiting Hubble before it reenters around 2033.
what happened
NASA issued a Request for Information on Oct. 29 asking commercial companies for proposals to boost the Hubble Space Telescope to a higher orbit, service it, or perform a controlled reentry or disposal, per NASA's own release. Any reboost mission would need to raise Hubble to at least 373 miles (600 km) and launch by 2032, ahead of a predicted uncontrolled reentry in 2033 or 2034; NASA says reaching 600 km could extend Hubble's time in orbit by at least 25 years. Responses are due by 3 p.m. ET on Nov. 30.
why it matters
It is NASA's most concrete step yet toward buying a commercial in-space-servicing mission for Hubble rather than letting it reenter uncontrolled. A real award would be a first-of-kind commercial contract for telescope reboost or servicing; a prior version of this RFI in 2022 drew eight proposals, including from Astroscale and Momentus, per Ars Technica, giving tug and servicing operators a concrete signal of what NASA might actually buy this time.
signal-to-noise
quick facts
- Companies
- NASA
- Category
- procurement
- Impact
- notable
- SNR
- 5 / 5
- Event date
- 2026-10-29
- Published
- 2026-10-31 05:33 UTC