Northrop Grumman launches spacecraft to rescue NASA's Swift telescope
A three-armed Link spacecraft was launched on Friday to capture and raise the orbit of NASA's Swift Observatory, which is descending toward Earth due to solar-storm-induced drag.
A three-armed Link spacecraft was launched on Friday from the Marshall Islands aboard a Pegasus rocket, which was carried aloft by a modified aircraft. The vehicle, built by Katalyst Space Technologies and flown by Northrop Grumman, is intended to rendezvous with NASA’s Swift Observatory and lift it to a higher orbit within about a month.
Swift, launched in 2004, has been losing altitude more rapidly after recent solar storms increased atmospheric drag. NASA has contracted Katalyst for $30 million to capture the 1.6-ton telescope, raise its orbit by roughly 150 miles (240 km) and enable it to resume observations of gamma-ray bursts and other cosmic explosions, potentially by September.
The telescope is currently orbiting at 224 miles (360 km) above Earth. Without the boost, it is expected to re-enter the atmosphere and be lost by October. NASA has placed the mission on an accelerated schedule, and the launch faced several delays due to weather and technical issues.
"This is a high-risk, high-reward mission," Katalyst Space CEO Ghonhee Lee said before liftoff. "The biggest danger was always we don’t launch anything and we let Swift burn up in the atmosphere. So we were always trying to avoid that risk, and our team has done that."
NASA officials noted that a similar salvage operation could be considered for the Hubble Space Telescope in the future, which is also experiencing altitude loss.