The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST or “Webb”) is a joint NASA–ESA–CSA space telescope that is planned to succeed the Hubble Space Telescope as NASA’s flagship astrophysics mission.

The Hubble Space Telescope had thought to be able to last beyond 2030. Whether it achieves that—or its present issues prove terminal—the orbiting observatory will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and burn-up in the mid-2030s.

NASA has now tried and failed to fix the Hubble Space Telescope 3 times. It’s been offline for a week. The computer that controls the Hubble Space Telescope’s science instruments suddenly halted June 13. NASA has tried and failed to fix Hubble’s computer issue three times.

Unless a concrete plan is made to send a new spacecraft to Hubble to fix it, the telescope will eventually become inoperable if all of its gyroscopes fail. And even if they remain active, Hubble is coming down eventually. As Hubble nears the end of its life, NASA is working to get the telescope’s successor into space.

Hubble’s main mirror being polished before installation. The edges of the were polished very slightly too flat, leaving the telescope unable to focus perfectly.

The telescope completed 30 years in operation in April 2020 and could last until 2030–2040. One successor to the Hubble telescope is the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) which is scheduled to be launched in late 2021.

First conceived in the 1940s and initially called the Large Space Telescope, the Hubble Space Telescope took decades of planning and research before it launched on April 24, 1990.

NASA

As it travels, Hubble’s mirror captures light and directs it into its several science instruments. This mirror is small compared with those of current ground-based telescopes, which can be 400 inches (1,000 cm) and up, but Hubble’s location beyond the atmosphere gives it remarkable clarity.