The deal begins to make more sense with NASA’s confirmation that the mission if carried out, would be free of charge to the government. NASA and SpaceX are also sponsoring their involvement in the research, according to NASA’s Science Mission Directorate Thomas Zurbuchen, who did not disclose how much the study would cost.
One of the primary objectives of the six-month feasibility study is to investigate how a crewed Dragon capsule, perhaps under the auspices of a Polaris Program mission, may safely meet and dock with Hubble before boosting the Hubble Space Telescope to a higher orbit. While SpaceX has plenty of experience docking with the International Space Station, Jessica Jensen, SpaceX’s VP of customer operations and integration, said that Hubble represented a whole new issue.
