Home›Global Markets›Asia›Nasa Swift observatory rescue mission canceled after s…

Nasa Swift observatory rescue mission canceled after spacecraft issues

The failed tug mission leaves Nasa’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, valued at US$500 million, likely to reenter and burn up naturally later this year.

Reported · Written up by our desk · Asia

A mission to extend the life of Nasa’s aging Swift observatory has been canceled after the spacecraft sent to capture and tug it developed irredeemable technical problems in orbit, according to Katalyst Space.

Katalyst’s Link craft was launched in early July to approach the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory at about 347km altitude, grapple the satellite, and raise it to roughly 600km to extend its operational life by years. After reaching space, the Link craft began spinning uncontrollably, and engineers worked for weeks, including uploading new positioning control software last week, that slowed the spinning but did not resolve the attitude control problems.

In a joint statement on Wednesday, Katalyst and Nasa said continued monitoring concluded the mission would not include capturing and boosting the observatory due to ongoing attitude control issues.

With the rescue attempt stopped, Nasa’s US$500 million Swift Observatory, which has studied gamma-ray bursts and other cosmic phenomena since 2004, is likely to fall back into Earth’s atmosphere and burn up later this year.

More like this

Sources