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Servicing HST with a Soyuz is basically impossible. Hubble is in a higher altitude orbit in a significantly lower inclination than the launch site for crewed So
by InclinedPlane 8y ago
Servicing HST with a Soyuz is basically impossible. Hubble is in a higher altitude orbit in a significantly lower inclination than the launch site for crewed Soyuz vehicles. To perform the plane change maneuver (of 23 deg.) would require a delta-V of 1.5 km/s (20% of the orbital velocity at the typical Soyuz destination altitude). That would require bringing nearly 4 tonnes of extra propellant onboard the Soyuz, which isn't feasible. Additionally, this doesn't include the added weight of the docking adapter and Hubble replacement parts that would need to be brought along.
It's conceivable that a repair mission might be possible with the soon to come into service US crew capsules (Dragon 2 and Starliner) since the rockets that launch them have more performance than the Soyuz, but even then it would be a pretty ambitious mission.