WOW: Hubble Space Telescope Will Last Through the Mid-2020s, Report Says.

One reason the spacecraft has lasted so long is that astronauts have provided aid. Servicing missions continued to update the telescope until 2009, when the space shuttle was retired.

The final update to Hubble included the installation of two brand-new instruments, the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) and WFC3. The astronauts on Servicing Mission 4 also performed on-site repairs for the telescope’s two other instruments, the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), both of which had stopped working. The astronauts additionally replaced Hubble’s 18-year-old batteries with new ones; installed six new gyroscopes, whose job is turning the telescope; and added a brand-new Fine Guidance System to point the instrument.

Astronauts also covered Hubble’s equipment bays with insulating panels and installed a device that will help to guide the observatory down when its mission comes to an end.

That’s impressive engineering, especially considering that by the time Hubble is retired, its last maintenance will have been performed 15 years or more prior.

Don’t try that with your car.