NASA calls off risky mission to save falling satellite

NASA’s risky mission to save a falling space telescope has failed, bringing an end to an experimental project aimed at demonstrating a new way to extend the lifespan of spacecraft in orbit.

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Katalyst Space’s Link spacecraft, partly funded by the U.S. space agency, launched in early July with the goal of capturing NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and boosting its orbit.

Swift, which has been studying gamma-ray bursts from space since 2004, has been slowly falling out of orbit and will eventually burn up in Earth’s atmosphere. Link’s mission aimed to push Swift to a higher altitude to keep the spacecraft operating in space for years into the future.

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However, Link suffered control issues after launching, causing the spacecraft to spin and leading to a loss of communications with the vehicle, the company and NASA said. Katalyst found issues with the hardware used to manage Link’s orientation, as well as problems with the vehicle’s thruster engines, they said.

NASA always presented the Swift Boost mission as a risky endeavour, given its quick turnaround time. The U.S. space agency awarded Katalyst a US$30-million contract for the mission last September after a series of solar storms caused Swift to drift toward Earth faster than expected, according to NASA.

“We took on this high-risk, high-reward challenge and are proud of the milestones we reached along the way,” Katalyst Chief Executive Officer Ghonlee Lee wrote in a statement.

The company and NASA are assessing what other objectives the Link spacecraft can meet while in orbit, with the possibility that Link may still approach the Swift telescope to demonstrate the ability to hover close to another vehicle in space.

The 21-year-old Swift observatory studies gamma-ray bursts, which NASA has said are the most powerful explosions in the universe, and the satellite was originally expected to have an orbital life of seven years.

Without a boost to its orbit, Swift will likely enter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up later this year, NASA said, bringing an end to its mission.

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