A Boost for Hubble?

Jared Isaacman has been in the aerospace news frequently of late. First as a “private astronaut” taking the first civilian spacewalk on September 12, 2024, on the SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission.  And much more recently, as president-elect Donald Trump’s new choice to head up NASA.

Isaacman has close ties to fellow-billionaire Elon Musk, having served in the first private crew to orbit in September 2021, a SpaceX venture. Isaacman and crew achieved orbit in a Crew Dragon spacecraft launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9, successfully completing their three-day flight.

Hidden a bit out of the headline glare has been Isaacman’s continued interest in rescuing the Hubble Space Telescope from its ultimate demise. Launched in 1990, Hubble is expected to continue as a valuable scientific instrument into the 2030s – despite this year’s failure of one of the platform’s three gyroscopes. Hubble is now using a single gyroscope to orient itself, with the second held in just-in-case reserve.

STS-31/Discovery carries the Hubble Space Telescope uphill to orbit on April 24, 1990. Photo: Frank Moriarty/Aerospace Perceptions

But Hubble is also losing altitude. Currently orbiting at roughly 320 miles above our planet, NASA may eventually be forced to bring the Hubble story to a conclusion with a controlled reentry, which of course would destroy the telescope.

There is, however, an alternative – and that’s where Isaacman comes in.

As reported here at Aerospace Perceptions, on September 22, 2022, concrete action on that alternative was taken. “On that date, NASA and SpaceX, in a partnership with its manned mission Polaris Program, announced a Space Act Agreement to look into the feasibility of using SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft ‘to boost the agency’s Hubble Space Telescope into a higher orbit with the Dragon spacecraft, at no cost to the government.’ NASA was quick to caution in its release, ‘There are no plans for NASA to conduct or fund a servicing mission or compete this opportunity; the study is designed to help the agency understand the commercial possibilities.’”

Talk even grew over the ensuing months of such a servicing mission to extend Hubble’s lifespan significantly. Hubble was last serviced in 1990, by the crew of Atlantis on Space Shuttle mission STS-125. Since then, Hubble has had no visitors.

STS-125 crew members in 1990 completing the daunting tasks involved in servicing the Hubble Space Telescope. Photo: NASA

Isaacman was an enthusiastic supporter of the idea of giving Hubble a boost. Yet despite his efforts to seriously drum up support for what admittedly would be a highly complex mission, NASA eventually demurred.

“Our position right now is that, after exploring the current commercial capabilities, we are not going to pursue a reboost,” announced Mark Clampin, director of the agency’s Astrophysics Division and Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, in June this year.

Atlantis has released the Hubble Space Telescope upon the successful completion of the 1990 servicing mission on STS-125. Photo: NASA

But what happens if the new head of NASA is a billionaire private astronaut who has made clear his affections for an all-new Hubble effort?

It goes without saying that if Isaacman becomes the space agency head, the Hubble Space Telescope will once again become a hot topic. And while many at NASA admit Isaacman’s endorsement would present challenges – including the danger of contamination of Hubble’s primary mirror during a mission to save the instrument – the future of the Hubble Space Telescope could become a very interesting one.