NASA is teaming up with startup Katalyst Space on an unprecedented rescue mission to save the Swift observatory from an unavoidable plunge into Earth’s atmosphere. The robotic spacecraft LINK is set to launch on Saturday and will try to grab the aging telescope and raise it into a stable orbit, in a bid to prove that expensive space assets can be repaired and preserved instead of abandoned.
Swift, launched in 2004 to study gamma-ray bursts and black holes, has lost altitude because of atmospheric drag and is now at risk of burning up. NASA says it is currently below 400 kilometers above Earth and continues to descend. The mission, assembled in just 250 days, is the first attempt ever to capture and rescue a satellite that was not designed with docking hardware.
Katalyst Space vice president Robert Lammonte called it “a historic mission, one of the first of its kind, a robotic spacecraft going out to capture a satellite that does not have docking equipment installed.” Project LINK lead researcher Kieran Wilson said, “In nine months we went from a sketch on paper to a spacecraft already ready on the rocket for launch. This is an unprecedented timetable.”
NASA astrophysics division chief Shawn Domagal-Goldman said the agency is taking a gamble, adding, “Nobody thought it was possible.” He noted that even if the technology works, some factors remain outside control, including how the Sun affects Earth’s atmosphere. Swift, originally expected to last two years, has operated for 22 years and has become NASA’s first responder to sudden cosmic events, with more research requests than any other agency facility. NASA has paused most of its science work on the telescope to slow its fall, and says success could establish a model for maintaining, refueling, and upgrading satellites rather than letting them become space junk.
