• Elon Musk’s SpaceX intends to fund research with NASA to increase the Hubble Space Telescope’s orbital altitude.
• The six-month study will be completely funded by SpaceX.
• It will look at whether SpaceX’s Dragon capsule has to be upgraded to raise the telescope’s orbit.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX intends to fund research with NASA to look into how to utilize the Dragon spacecraft to increase the Hubble Space Telescope’s orbital altitude, which would increase the telescope’s useful life, according to agency officials.

In a last-minute press conference, NASA’s science head Thomas Zurbuchen assured reporters that the six-month study will be completely funded by SpaceX, whose Crew Dragon spacecraft transports humans and supplies to and from the International Space Station on behalf of NASA.

SpaceX approached NASA a few months ago with the suggestion for a study on how a commercial crew could aid in boosting our Hubble spacecraft into a higher orbit, extending its observational lifetime.

Since its debut in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has served as a workhorse cosmic observatory for astronomers all over the world, providing stunning star pictures and facilitating significant discoveries like the age of the universe and the moons of Pluto.

In order to “help establish whether it would be viable to safely rendezvous, dock, and relocate the telescope into a more stable orbit,” NASA stated teams will gather data.

Throughout the US shuttle program in the early 2000s, Hubble had maintenance on multiple occasions.

Since the end of that program in 2011, astronomers have investigated a number of options for maintaining the ageing but still functional telescope. There are no developed plans.

The study will look at whether SpaceX’s Dragon capsule has to be upgraded to dock with and raise the telescope’s orbit as well as whether astronauts need to be on board for a future flight, among other things.

During the press conference, Jessica Jensen, vice president of customer operations at SpaceX, remarked, “At this moment, everything is on the table.”

Officials from NASA highlighted that the deal with SpaceX is exclusively for a SpaceX-funded study and does not indicate future plans for the agency to maintain the telescope.

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