This is the best summary I could come up with:
The venerable Hubble Space Telescope is running out of gyroscopes, and when none are left, the instrument will cease to conduct meaningful science.
“I don’t personally see this as a major restriction on its ability to do science,” said Mark Clampin, director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA headquarters in Washington, DC.
The last of these servicing missions, flown by space shuttle Atlantis in 2009, performed numerous upgrades, including the replacement of all six gyroscopes that help to orient and point the telescope.
The telescope’s project manager, Patrick Crouse, said there is a 70 percent chance that Hubble can maintain science operations using a single gyroscope through 2035.
After NASA and SpaceX conducted a feasibility study late that year it was recommended that the space agency continue investigating the possibility of a commercial mission.
NASA has evidently decided that it is safer to let Hubble age out on its own, than take a chance on private hands touching the hallowed telescope.
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