Once described as the most important telescope in history after the original built by Galileo, the Hubble Space Telescope has offered humanity an unrivalled window into the stars around us.

But 35 years after its launch in 1990, the telescope's life is expected to come to an end over the next decade, as its parts fail, sending it crashing back down to earth.

By the mid-to-late 2030s, Hubble's orbital distance from the Earth would have become too small to keep it in space. Scientists estimated there was a 99.6 per cent chance it would be destroyed as it re-enters the atmosphere.

But Donald Trump's Nov 5 victory may change that.

The president-elect's choice for the next administrator of Nasa has re-ignited hopes that Hubble can be repaired and boosted back to its original position, 600km from the surface of the Earth.

On Wednesday, Mr Trump announced that the agency will be led by Jared Isaacman - a tech billionaire and astronaut who became the first private citizen to complete a spacewalk earlier this year.

Mr Isaacman has long been concerned about the condition of Hubble, and believes a partnership between Nasa and the private sector could extend the telescope's life, without a multi-billion dollar cash injection from Congress.

Back in 2022, Mr Isaacman offered to pay for a SpaceX mission to the telescope that would replace Hubble's gyroscopes, which allow it to rotate in space and direct itself towards objects of interest in the night sky.

Hubble had six gyroscopes when it launched in 1990, but after almost four decades in space just two are operating correctly. The telescope can function with just one gyroscope, but with less range than when at full capacity.

The fourth and most recent servicing mission to replace the telescope's parts and boost it back to a higher orbit took place in 2009. Nasa assumed that would be the last attempt to fix Hubble before it crashed back to Earth.

But Mr Isaacman said it was a "no brainer" that the telescope should be repaired a fifth time, potentially extending Hubble's life by years.

Since the launch of the James Webb space telescope in December 2021, researchers have been given unique access to images from both the visible light spectrum (from Hubble) and the infrared spectrum (from Webb) at the same time. This, Mr Isaacman believed, was a partnership worth preserving.

"I am a bit concerned that the clock is being run out on this game," he said in January. "At this pace, there may not be a Hubble to save."

His plan was an unprecedented collaboration between private spaceflight and Nasa, which until recently had maintained an effective monopoly on extra-planetary travel.

But after conducting a feasibility study, the agency declined his offer, judging that the risk to both SpaceX astronauts and to the telescope was too great.

Unlike Nasa's Space Shuttle Atlantis, which was used for the last repair mission, SpaceX's Starships have no airlock, which requires astronauts to fully decompress the inside of the spacecraft before stepping outside.

That was first trialled by Mr Isaacman in September, when he walked in space on the company's Polaris Dawn mission.

On a previous flight, he became the first person to place a sports bet from orbit, losing $4,000 on his wager that the Philadelphia Eagles would win the Super Bowl.

Emails released to NPR under Freedom of Information laws show that NASA staff had some concerns about the safety of such a mission, noting that the "risk profile" of Elon Musk's company was much higher than that of a federal agency.

While attracted to the zero cost of the mission, Nasa was also concerned that the lack of a robotic arm on SpaceX shuttles would make it difficult for an astronaut to conduct a spacewalk and repair the telescope at the same time.

If the telescope was not grounded to spaceship, engineers suggested the spacewalker would be left floating around in space while working with the gyroscopes and other delicate instruments.

Mr Isaacman's offer was politely declined by NASA.

"Our position right now is that, after exploring the current commercial capabilities, we are not going to pursue a re-boost right now," said Mark Clampin, director of the astrophysics division at Nasa headquarters in June.

Mr Isaacman, a civilian tech entrepreneur who has never worked in politics, is an unorthodox choice to lead Nasa by historical standards but fits entirely within Mr Trump's game plan for his next term.

The president-elect has already appointed Mr Musk to head a new "Department of Government Efficiency" programme, and can be expected to aggressively support the partnership between Nasa and private companies over the next four years.

The most significant space event of the decade is likely to fall within his term, when humans return to the moon for the first time since 1972 as part of the agency's Artemis programme.

Like many recent Nasa projects, Artemis is a collaboration with SpaceX. Mr Musk's company has built the Starship Human Landing System that will carry astronauts from the "Lunar Gateway" in lunar orbit to the moon's surface.

The project, which is estimated to cost up to $30 billion, has been sold to the public as a diversity mission and will put a woman and a person of colour on the moon for the first time.

Mr Isaacman's appointment as Nasa's administrator is an attempt by the president-elect to inject the same swashbuckling private sector energy into space exploration as he intends to take to Washington.

In a statement, Mr Trump said the entrepreneur would "drive Nasa's mission of discovery and inspiration, paving the way for groundbreaking achievements in space science, technology, and exploration".

And with his own nod to the commercial benefits of space exploration, Mr Isaacman added that he would pursue "breakthroughs in manufacturing, biotechnology, mining, and perhaps even pathways to new sources of energy" during his time at the agency.

Using Mr Musk's new influence in the federal government and the blessing of the White House, Mr Isaacman is expected to propel Nasa towards commercial partnerships that will define the American space programme for years to come.

Hubble, perhaps, will be the first item on his agenda.