OUTSOURCING IN SPACE
NASA and SpaceX are studying sending a private crew to boost Hubble’s orbit




Aria Alamalhodaei
Thu, September 29, 2022 

SpaceX and NASA have signed a new agreement to study the feasibility of sending a commercial crew in a SpaceX Dragon to boost the orbit of the Hubble Space Telescope. If completed, the mission could extend the operational lifespan of the telescope by as much as 20 years.

NASA officials cautioned that today’s news is not a mission announcement. For now, it’s just a feasibility study to consider whether such a mission is sensible, given technical and other constraints. Indeed, one might assume that an uncrewed space tug might be best suited for an orbital boosting mission, and there are plenty of space startups working on that kind of technology. But apparently the mission was SpaceX’s idea, and for some reason, they (and their partner, Jared Isaacman’s Polaris Program) want humans involved.

The agreement starts to make more sense with NASA’s acknowledgement that the mission, should it go forward, would come at no cost to the government. NASA and SpaceX are also each funding their participation in the study, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate Thomas Zurbuchen said during a media briefing, though he didn’t specify how much the study will cost.

One of the main goals of the six-month feasibility study is to explore how a crewed Dragon capsule, possible under the aegis of a Polaris Program mission, could safely rendezvous and dock with Hubble, and then boost the Hubble Space Telescope to a higher orbit. While SpaceX has plenty of experience docking with the International Space Station, SpaceX’s VP of customer operations and integration Jessica Jensen acknowledged that Hubble represents an entirely different challenge.

“Hubble’s different,” she said. “It’s in a different orbit, different mass, different vehicle […] it will all be unique to the telescope.”

The feasibility study, which will be predominately technical but will also consider cost and schedule, might determine that an uncrewed mission is more appropriate, Jensen added. “At this point, everything is on the table,” she said.

It seems likely that the mission would be part of the Polaris Program, a private spaceflight program headed by Jared Isaacman, the billionaire that flew to space on the Inspiration4 mission. That mission, which was conducted in partnership with SpaceX, was estimated to cost less than $200 million. Isaacman, who made his fortune from the payment processing company Shift4 Payments, footed the bill.

Hubble recently lost its place as the world’s most famous space telescope, after the newer and more powerful James Webb Space Telescope released its first images this summer. But Hubble’s contributions to science over its 32-year lifespan are arguably immeasurable: The telescope has made more than 1.5 million observations and helped generate material for more than 19,000 peer-reviewed scientific papers, Patrick Crouse, Hubble project manager, said.

But Hubble has not been immune to Earth’s gravity. Since the last servicing mission in 2009, it’s lost about 30 kilometers of altitude, dropping from around 565 kilometers to just under 535. This mission could provide 40-70 kilometers of boost, which could add 15 or even 20 years to the Hubble’s operational life, Crouse said. Should a reboosting mission not take place, Hubble may need to be de-orbited by the end of this decade.

The news is notable not just as the latest sign that the space agency is increasingly turning to commercial partnerships to execute essential missions. It also shows that NASA is theoretically open to working with private, non-astronaut crews, too.

“Alongside NASA, exploration is one of many objectives for the commercial space industry, and probably one of the greatest exploration assets of all time is the Hubble Space Telescope,” Isaacman said. “It’s absolutely exciting to think about extending the life and capabilities of one of our greatest explorers.”

NASA and SpaceX to investigate whether Crew Dragon spaceship could drag Hubble Space Telescope further from Earth

Morgan McFall-Johnsen
Thu, September 29, 2022 

The Hubble Space Telescope launched in 1990 and has provided humanity a front-row seat to the cosmos for more than three decades.NASA

NASA, SpaceX, and a billionaire flying on the Crew Dragon spaceship are conducting a study together.

They're investigating whether Crew Dragon could drag the Hubble Space Telescope to a higher orbit.

The reboost maneuver would extend the telescope's lifetime, potentially for decades.

NASA and SpaceX are working together to see if the company's Crew Dragon spaceship could grab the Hubble Space Telescope and drag it into a higher orbit.

If Hubble were further from Earth, its lifetime could be longer. The observatory's eventual death will occur when it loses so much altitude that it succumbs to gravity and falls to Earth. Hubble has already lost about 55 miles of altitude. At that rate, NASA expects it will deorbit in the mid-2030s.

But SpaceX has offered to investigate the possibility of sending one of its Crew Dragon spaceships to grab Hubble and pull it to a higher orbit — a reboost maneuver.

Crew Dragon approaches the International Space Station, on April 24, 2021.NASA

Neither SpaceX nor NASA could say how exactly the reboost would work. That's why they're conducting the six-month feasibility study.

"We're excited to be looking again at new and innovative ways to keep our mission at the forefront of scientific discovery," Patrick Crouse, Hubble Space Telescope project manager, said in a briefing announcing the study on Thursday.

Crouse estimates the maneuver could extend Hubble's life by 15 to 20 years.

Jared Isaacman, a billionaire who flew to space aboard a Crew Dragon last year, was in the press conference and will participate in the study. Isaacman recently purchased three flights on SpaceX vehicles for a program called Polaris. The first mission would take Isaacman and a few others, aboard Crew Dragon, to the highest Earth orbit ever flown by humans. They plan to conduct the first ever commercial spacewalk, donning new SpaceX spacesuits and exiting the vehicle.

When asked in the briefing whether one of his Polaris missions would do the Hubble reboost, Isaacman said "I think we cross the bridge on who's ultimately flying it if the study ultimately supports embarking on a mission."

Jared Isaacman at SpaceX in Hawthorne, California.SpaceX/Business Wire via AP Photo

Still, he said, "this would certainly fit within the parameters we established for the Polaris program."

There's a chance SpaceX and NASA will find it's a bad idea, though.

"We don't want to do something that's going to put Hubble at risk at all," Jessica Jensen, vice president of customer operations and integration at SpaceX, said in the briefing.

NASA is not paying SpaceX to conduct the study. It's not clear whether SpaceX or Isaacman will cover the costs.

NASA is also open to proposals from other companies that might want to perform the reboost, though none of its commercial partners have yet expressed an interest in doing so.

SpaceX and Isaacman said there's a chance the effort could be done with "little or no potential cost to the government."

NASA used to fly astronauts to Hubble to conduct repairs to the Earth-orbiting telescope. But those missions have not been possible since the agency retired its Space Shuttles. The last Hubble servicing mission was in 2009.

Seven astronauts on the Space Shuttle Endeavour replaced a malfunctioning mirror on the Hubble Space Telescope in December 1993.NASA

In recent years, Hubble encountered a series of issues that took it offline for weeks at a time. Even if it never falls out of orbit, eventually its hardware would decline.