NASA plans robotic rescue mission for aging Swift telescope
Written by AI from pbs.org's report. Not checked by a person.
NASA has hired Katalyst Space Technologies for a $30 million operation to lift the Swift observatory to a higher orbit. A robotic spacecraft was due to launch as early as Wednesday, and company officials say success is not guaranteed.
NASA is trying to keep the aging Swift Observatory from falling back to Earth. The agency hired the startup Katalyst Space Technologies for a $30 million salvage operation, which was set to begin as soon as this week. Katalyst's three-armed robotic spacecraft, named Link, was planned to launch on a Pegasus rocket carried by an airplane from an atoll in the Marshall Islands, with liftoff possible as early as Wednesday.
Swift has scanned the cosmos since 2004 and has been sinking faster because of recent intense solar activity. Its orbit is now about 224 miles (360 kilometers) up. Link is expected to need about a month to reach and catch Swift, and a couple more months to raise it to the target of 373 miles (600 kilometers). The telescope must stay above 185 miles (300 kilometers) for the rescue to work, and the latest estimates say it is expected to reach that point in October. Katalyst CEO Ghonhee Lee said Swift could be working again by September if all goes well.
Swift was never designed to be repaired or grabbed, and company officials stress there is no guarantee the mission will work. NASA has turned off Swift's science instruments to slow its descent, and observations stopped in February. NASA science chief Nicky Fox said losing Swift would mean losing a lot of capability, and the agency does not currently have the budget to build a replacement.
Lee said the company's next-generation robot, which is still in development, could help the much bigger Hubble Space Telescope, which is also losing altitude, in a couple of years. The article says a Katalyst boost for Hubble could follow in 2028.
