NASA's satellite rescue mission fails, Swift telescope set to fall to Earth
A NASA-backed attempt to save the Swift space telescope from burning up in the atmosphere has failed after the rescue spacecraft went out of control, and the telescope is now expected to fall to Earth later this year.
NASA announced on Wednesday that an ambitious mission to rescue the Swift space telescope from atmospheric destruction has ended in failure, after the spacecraft sent to save it could not be controlled.
Swift, which has studied the universe's most powerful explosions — gamma-ray bursts — since its 2004 launch, is now expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere and disintegrate sometime later this year.
A failed robotic rescue attempt
The roughly $30 million mission, described as unprecedented, aimed to send an uncrewed spacecraft to grab hold of Swift and push it into a higher, safer orbit. The spacecraft was built by American startup Katalyst and launched on July 3 aboard a small Pegasus rocket, which was itself released from an airplane.
By July 28, however, Katalyst reported that the spacecraft had been spinning out of control for 72 hours and was suffering multiple issues, including a loss of communications. On Wednesday, announcing the end of the mission, the company pointed to persistent attitude control problems as the cause.
NASA still hopes to learn from the attempt
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the outcome was not what the team had hoped for, but that this did not diminish the value of attempting the mission. He noted that the team had moved with extraordinary speed to give Swift a chance at more scientific observations while also advancing capabilities the United States will need for servicing satellites in orbit in the future.
NASA said the spacecraft would still try to reach Swift, in hopes of gathering lessons for scientists and engineers ahead of similar missions down the road. Mission planners had hoped a successful rescue would demonstrate a path toward extending the life of other aging satellites.
