A mission to rescue NASA’s falling Swift Observatory was called off Wednesday, dooming the space telescope to a destructive atmospheric reentry later this year.
NASA and Katalyst Space Technologies revealed the news more than a month after the startup launched its Link spacecraft to attempt a rescue mission.
Katalyst stated that ongoing control issues aboard Link prevented the spacecraft from capturing Swift to lift it into a higher orbit. NASA confirmed this outcome means the telescope will fall through the atmosphere after spending more than 20 years monitoring major cosmic events, including exploding stars and gamma ray bursts.
NASA paid $30 million to Katalyst in an attempt to raise the telescope to a safer, longer-lasting orbit. Intense solar activity caused it to lose altitude faster than expected. The rescue spacecraft went into an uncontrollable spin a few weeks after its liftoff in early July. While flight controllers managed to slow Link's tumble, issues continued to plague its pointing and positioning in orbit.
“This is not the outcome we were working toward, but it does not change why this mission was worth attempting," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a statement.
As a consolation prize, Katalyst will continue to operate Link in proximity with the telescope to demonstrate capabilities for future rescue operations.
Katalyst CEO Ghonhee Lee said it was an ambitious mission on an aggressive timeline that was thrown together in under a year .
“We took on this high-risk, high-reward challenge and are proud of the milestones we reached along the way,” Lee said in a statement. “We have already learned a tremendous amount."
Launched in 2004, Swift's science instruments were turned off earlier this year to slow its descent. It was orbiting 216 miles (347 kilometers) high as of last week.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope could benefit from an orbital boost and had been next in line for a rescue attempt had this mission gone well. The 36-year-old Hubble is also dropping in orbit because of all the sun's recent outbursts. It wasn't immediately known whether Hubble is now out of luck.
