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Hubble Space Telescope Will Last Through the Mid-2020s, Report Says (space.com)
schwit1 shares a report from Space.com: Despite recent issues with one of its instruments, the Hubble Space Telescope is expected to last at least another five years. A new report suggests that the iconic spacecraft has a strong chance of enduring through the mid-2020s. [...] 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.
the James Webb Space Telescope, (JWST) is currently scheduled for March 2021. It was designed as the successor to the Hubble , and originally scheduled for launch in June 2018.
https://www.nasa.gov/press-rel...
How interesting, a government web site that's still working.
Gemini "EVA" involved both crew members being suited for space all the time in the capsule since the spacewalks involved depressurising the entire crew living quarters. The Hubble had an airlock, jumpsuited support personnel for the jumpsuited spacewalkers who assisted them into their suits and out again permitting multiple two-man multi-hour spacewalks to accomplish several different tasks on each flight which lasted several days.
The Shuttle also had the Canada arm to carry space walkers and parts to the Hubble as well as grapple with the Hubble itself. Dragon has no arm and nowhere and no way to mount an arm or power and control it.
Dragon is optimised to reach the ISS orbit at about 400km, carrying passengers up and down from the space station. The Hubble orbits at about 550km, a lot higher. To reach the Hubble and manoeuvre around it the Dragon would have to carry more fuel and less payload but still have parts, EVA suits, supplies for an extended flight time of over a week, an airlock etc.
The Shuttle had a large dry mass but it also had a large "wet" mass -- it could launch with up to 18 tonnes of manoeuvering fuel as well as 20 tonnes of payload in the payload bay (there were mass tradeoffs though depending on the mission). Dragon is designed down to meet "spam-in-a-can" specifications, a Soyuz replacement with some extra bells and whistles.
It would be better to build and launch a Hubble replacement rather than attempt to keep it running by repair and maintenance flights. Technology has moved on since the 1980s when the Hubble was designed and built. I doubt if there's a budget for an exact replacement now though.