NASA Launches Swift Boost Mission to Rescue Space Telescope

Katalyst's satellite rescue mission is now in pursuit of NASA's Swift

It will take several weeks for the Link spacecraft to rendezvous with NASA's Swift observatory.

NASA launches Swift Boost mission to rescue space telescope

NASA successfully launched its mission to save the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory on July 3, just over nine months after awarding the rescue contract to Katalyst Space Technologies — a turnaround that left almost no room for error. Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus XL rocket dropped from the belly of the L-1011 aircraft Stargazer at roughly 40,000Continue reading "NASA launches Swift Boost mission to rescue space telescope" The post NASA launches Swift…

NASA Saves Swift Satellite with Rapid Star Tracker Swap in 2004

In September 2004, NASA faced an urgent problem with one of its most productive scientific instruments. The Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer, a satellite designed to chase some of the universe’s most violent events, had suffered a failure in its onboard star tracker. Without accurate pointing information, the observatory risked losing its ability to rapidly slew toward new cosmic explosions and collect the high-energy data astronomers depended on.…

NASA’s risky bid to save Swift telescope before solar drag pulls it into Earth’s atmosphere

NASA is preparing for a rescue that sounds more like a stunt than routine mission control: send a robot into orbit, find an aging telescope that was never built to be serviced, grab it with three mechanical arms, and drag it to safety before it falls back to Earth. The telescope is the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, a spacecraft launched in 2004 to catch gamma-ray bursts, some of the most violent explosions in the universe. Swift was meant to l…