NASA Plans Rescue Mission for Aging Space Telescope

The NASA aims to salvage an aging space observation telescope that is losing altitude through a bold rescue mission. This $30 million operation is set to begin this week with the launch of a robotic lifeline.

NASA has hired the startup Katalyst Space Technologies to raise the Swift Observatory to a higher orbit, enabling it to continue its search for large cosmic explosions. A spacecraft with three arms built by Katalyst will pursue Swift once it launches from an atoll in the Marshall Islands, in the Pacific, aboard a Pegasus rocket launched from an aircraft. The launch might occur on Tuesday.

Since its debut in 2004, Swift has been scanning the cosmos but has descended rapidly due to recent intense solar activity. It urgently needs a higher and stable orbit to survive. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is also at risk and could be next.

Like Swift, Hubble is losing altitude due to successive solar flares. Katalyst Space’s CEO, Ghonhee Lee, mentioned that their next-generation robot, still developing, might rescue Hubble—which is much larger—within a few years.

The autonomous spacecraft from Katalyst, named Link, will take around a month to meet Swift and capture it, then a few more months to elevate its orbit from the current 360 kilometers (224 miles) to the desired 600 kilometers (373 miles). The 1.6-ton gamma-ray observatory must stay above 300 kilometers (185 miles) for the rescue to work, expected to reach a critical point by October.

Link, approximately the size of a small kitchen refrigerator, features 12 meters (40 feet) of solar wings, and three arms over one meter (3 feet) long with two gripping clamps resembling fingers, akin to Lego figurines hands.

If successful, Swift could resume operations in September, according to Lee. Worth hundreds of millions of dollars, Swift was never meant for repairs, making this a challenging operation. Company officials claim there’s no guarantee it will work.

NASA signed a contract with Katalyst in September with two requests: the task had to be timely, yet not worsening the situation. Nine months later, the company is ready to act.

Nobody expected these results. “No one thought it was possible. Nobody thought we would have gotten this far,” expressed Shawn Domagal-Goldman, director of NASA’s astrophysics.

NASA has bought extra time for Swift by shutting down all scientific instruments to slow its descent. Observations stopped in February.

NASA’s chief of scientific missions, Nicky Fox, stated that the effort is worth it. “If we let Swift re-enter, we would lose that telescope and a lot of capacity.” Currently, there is no budget to build another.

Despite space limitations, Swift remains vital. Swift is designed to rapidly rotate and capture last-minute astronomical events like gamma-ray bursts and exploding stars. With more discoveries expected from the Webb and soon-to-launch Roman Space Telescopes, Swift could become NASA’s busy “first informant.”

Katalyst views Swift as the starting point for an emerging space repair business. Their next-generation robotic rescuer, scheduled for next year, will handle satellites at altitudes up to 35,800 kilometers (22,300 miles).

Lee envisions hundreds of robots orbiting one day, accomplishing repairs, satellite elevation, refueling, and building solar farms, data centers, and other platforms.

Hubble, 36 years old, serviced repeatedly by astronauts during the space shuttle era, might be extended in 2028 with a Katalyst boost. “It’s a national treasure,” Fox expressed. “People love Hubble.”

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This story was translated from English by an AP editor using a generative AI tool.