Hubble Space Telescope is falling to Earth – should NASA save it?

New Scientist · Matthew Sparkes · 2026-11-06 12:00 UTC

The Hubble Space Telescope faces a fiery and fatal re-entry to Earth's atmosphere sometime around 2032, but NASA is asking the private sector for ideas to keep it working

The Hubble Space Telescope photographed by a crew member on a space shuttle servicing mission in 2009

The Hubble Space Telescope is slowly falling out of the sky, and it could burn up in Earth's atmosphere as soon as 2032. Researchers are urging NASA to rescue it, arguing that the ageing instrument is still vital for science and will leave a stark capability gap if lost.

Hubble was launched in 1990 and, following an infamous design flaw in one of its mirrors that was only fixed in 1993, has provided a wealth of new science ever since. NASA claims that more than 23,000 peer-reviewed scientific papers have emerged from its images.

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