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Rescue mission is launched to save an aging NASA telescope
AP News • • general
Key Points:
- A three-armed spacecraft named Link, developed by Katalyst Space Technologies, was launched from the Marshall Islands to rescue NASA’s Swift Observatory, which is at risk of crashing back to Earth due to a rapidly sinking orbit.
- The Pegasus rocket, deployed from a modified airplane, put Link on course to reach and capture Swift in about a month, with the goal of boosting the telescope’s altitude by 150 miles to extend its operational life.
- Swift, launched in 2004, has been descending faster due to recent solar storms, and NASA is paying $30 million for this mission to preserve its ability to monitor cosmic events like gamma ray bursts.
- The mission was expedited and assembled in nine months because Swift’s orbit is predicted to decay irreversibly by October, and successful orbit boosting could allow the telescope to resume observations by September.
- NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope may face a similar salvage mission in the future as it also experiences altitude loss from increased atmospheric drag caused by solar activity.
