We get the good news that NASA has contractually extended the science operations of its Hubble Space Telescope for another five years . This action will take effect from July 1 to June 30, 2021. The amount of the contract will increase by more than 196 million dollars to 2,030 million dollars .
This contract extension covers the work necessary to continue the Hubble mission program by the Space Telescope Science Institute. Support includes products and services necessary to execute system engineering, ground system development, science operations, scientific research, and grant management.
Hubble was launched into orbit on April 24, 1990 as a joint project of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) and, with this extension of its useful life, it is expected to continue to provide valuable data until 2020 .
NASA plans to replace Hubble with the James Webb Space Telescope, an international project led by the North American agency with its partners, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency, which will be launched into space in 2018 from French Guiana aboard a Ariane rocket 5 .