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Hubble Telescope Hit By Mechanical Failure (bbc.com)
The Hubble Space Telescope is operating with only essential functions after it lost one of the gyroscopes needed to point the spacecraft. From a report: The observatory, described as one of the most important scientific instruments ever created, was placed in "safe mode" over the weekend, while scientists try to fix the problem. Hubble had been operating with four of its six gyroscopes when one of them failed on Friday. The telescope was launched in 1990. After the gyro failure at the weekend, controllers tried to switch on a different one, but that was found to be malfunctioning. That leaves Hubble with only two fully functional gyros. At any given time, Hubble needs three of its gyroscopes to work for optimal efficiency.
It's even worse than that. JWST isn't a real REPLACEMENT for Hubble. It'll be able to do things that Hubble can't, but there are even MORE things Hubble can do that JWST won't ever be able to do.
The fact is, we don't have the ability to launch a new satellite as big or as heavy as Hubble... and AFAIK, there are no rockets even under development that will be capable of delivering something as physically BIG as Hubble (or the existing ISS modules) into orbit. Hubble and the existing ISS modules are all we have, and all we're LIKELY to have for DECADES. They're literally irreplaceable within the span of our lives, and as such, deorbiting them is, IMHO, wantonly reckless and irresponsible. If Hubble's telescope functionality dies before we have the ability to send a refurbishment mission, we should be ready to DO the deorbiting mission on 18 months' notice... but always and only as a last-ditch "plan B" if we don't get the ability to launch a robotic or manned servicing & refurbishment mission first.
From what I understand, if Hubble failed completely and became totally uncontrolled tomorrow, it would be at least a decade before it fell far enough to present imminent risk of uncontrolled reentry. If we made even a token attempt to send a robotic mission to boost it into a higher orbit, we could easily add another decade to that. SpaceX might not be ready to fly a refurbishment mission to Hubble within the next 3-5 years... but it probably COULD be ready to do it 6-10 years from now (if it had a firm commitment from NASA), and will probably be capable of doing it within 10-15 years regardless of what NASA does (and knowing Musk, would probably invoke maritime salvage law & refurbish Hubble ITSELF as a commercial venture if NASA couldn't/wouldn't do it).
Frankly, I think 90% of NASA's sense of deorbiting-urgency is precisely BECAUSE they'd rather see things like the ISS and Hubble get intentionally destroyed than risk allowing someone else to metaphorically grab them from the curb before the garbage truck arrives.