NASA is hatching plans to restart the Hubble space observatory. The equipment of the telescope, which has been in orbit for more than 30 years, needs repair and maintenance, and there is also the question of raising the orbit of the observatory. By 2025, Hubble’s orbit will decrease to 500 km, and its support will become more difficult. To address these issues, NASA has issued a request for participation of any interested companies in missions to continue the observatory. Reboot ‘Hubble’ to be.
This summer, NASA extended the Hubble mission until 2026. Judging by the submitted application, the agency is ready to continue to support the operation of the telescope, but without maintenance and raising the orbit, this will be impossible. Earlier this year, NASA entered into a non-exclusive agreement with SpaceX to explore the possibility of servicing the telescope. You can use the Crew Dragon ship for this. At this time, there is no information on how SpaceX plans to carry out such a mission.
Since the contract with SpaceX is non-exclusive, NASA issued an open request for participation in the Hubble reload program to all interested parties. A short summary from problem solving applicants must be submitted no later than 8 weeks, and a detailed summary no later than 24 weeks.
It is interesting that NASA does not intend to pay for the mission to raise the orbit of the telescope. The contract will be concluded on the basis of non-exchange financing. The point is that the best project will become a baseline for NASA in servicing many other satellites in orbit from repair to orbit change. By testing the technology for free on the rise of the Hubble orbit, the applicant will gain access to NASA contracts for years and even decades to come.
