NASA has launched an ambitious mission to rescue one of its longest-serving observatories, the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, which is at risk of falling back to Earth.
The Telescope has been in orbit for more than two decades. The mission, led in partnership with private space company Katalyst Space Technologies, aims to extend the telescope's life by moving it into a higher orbit.
The rescue spacecraft, called Link, lifted off aboard a Pegasus XL rocket launched from the belly of a Northrop Grumman aircraft over the Pacific Ocean. If all goes as planned, Link is expected to meet Swift in about a month before carefully attaching itself to the observatory.
Launched in 2004, Swift has played a crucial role in astronomy by detecting gamma-ray bursts, exploding stars and other powerful cosmic events. Its discoveries have helped astronomers around the world quickly point larger telescopes towards these short-lived phenomena, making it one of NASA's most productive space observatories.
The telescope's orbit has been shrinking faster than expected due to increased atmospheric drag from recent solar activity.
NASA suspended Swift's scientific observations earlier this year to conserve its remaining orbital altitude while engineers prepared a rescue mission; without intervention, the Observatory could have re-entered Earth's atmosphere later this year.
NASA awarded Katalyst Space Technologies a $30 million contract to carry out the operation; unlike newer spacecraft, Swift was never designed for in-orbit servicing and does not have a docking port, making this mission significantly more complex.
Link will instead rely on robotic arms to capture the telescope before raising its orbit by about 150 miles (240 kilometres), restoring it to a height close to its original operating altitude.
If successful, Swift is expected to resume scientific observation by September. The mission is also being closely watched as a demonstration of satellite servicing technology that could eventually be used to extend the life of other ageing spacecraft, including NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
The mission was put together in just nine months, an unusually short timeline for a space operation of this complexity.
NASA believes the project could pave the way for future missions that repair, refuel or reposition satellites instead of replacing them altogether.
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