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Private spacecraft falls back to Earth after failing to rescue aging NASA telescope
ABC News - Breaking News, Latest News and Videos • • general
Key Points:
- The robotic spacecraft Link, launched to rescue NASA's aging Swift Observatory, reentered Earth's atmosphere and was lost less than three months after its July launch, ending the $30 million salvage mission.
- Link encountered technical failures including loss of reaction wheels and a valve malfunction that caused a spin, ultimately leaving it without enough fuel to complete the rescue.
- Despite the failure, the mission provided valuable experience in satellite-rescue operations and robotic arm maneuvers, with Link coming within 7 to 9 miles of Swift to capture images.
- Swift, launched in 2004 to observe gamma ray bursts and cosmic explosions, is expected to reenter Earth's atmosphere in early November as its orbit decays.
- NASA is now exploring ways to compensate for the impending loss of Swift, which has served as a critical early-warning observatory for other telescopes.
