NASA, Katalyst call off SWIFT rescue mission over issues with rescue craft in space
The failed rescue leaves Swift on course to reenter later this year, while NASA says the mission still yielded data for future servicing flights.
- On Wednesday, NASA called off the mission to rescue the sinking Swift Observatory, dooming the telescope to a fiery atmospheric reentry later this year.
- Katalyst Space Technologies' Link spacecraft entered an uncontrollable spin weeks after its July launch, with persistent pointing and positioning issues eventually forcing the mission's cancellation.
- NASA paid $30 million to Katalyst to raise the telescope to a safer orbit; Swift has tracked universe explosions for more than 20 years before this setback.
- Katalyst CEO Ghonhee Lee said "we have already learned a tremendous amount," and the company will keep Link in orbit near Swift to demonstrate future rescue capabilities.
- NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman called the mission "worth attempting" despite the cancellation, while the 36-year-old Hubble Space Telescope also faces orbital decay from solar outbursts.
165 Articles
165 Articles
The LINK spacecraft began to spin uncontrollably after its launch and will not be able to dock with the valuable Swift space telescope. The post NASA space telescope falls to Earth after failure in rescue mission appeared first on in.gr.
NASA Cancels the Rescue of the Swift Telescope and Confirms Its Fall to Earth by the End of the Year
NASA's Swift space telescope has been in danger since the degradation of its orbit was accelerated in 2025 by an increase in solar activity. Faced with this scenario, the US space agency decided to break into its scientific observations and launch a robotic ship to prevent its uncontrolled re-entry to Earth, so Katalyst Space launched the LINK probe with the intention of approaching the telescope and capturing it autonomously to raise its orbit.
The unique attempt to save the aging NASA Swift space telescope from destruction has been definitively called off. The rescue vessel that the...
The start-up robot Katalyst was unable to propel to a higher orbit the only space observatory capable of detecting gamma bursts occurring in distant galaxies. While the telescope is now condemned, NASA hopes to save as much data as possibleOn Wednesday NASA announced the failure of its perilous mission in which a space robot was to catch and propel up its old space telescope Swift. The latter is now reduced to waiting for its soon-to-be disinteg…
Ars Technica
technewstube.comNASA calls off mission to rescue Swift gamma-ray observatory
Without a rescue, NASA's Swift Observatory is expected to reenter the atmosphere later this year.
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 60% of the sources are Center
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
