telescope

At the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Nov 20, 2004, a NASA Boeing Delta II rocket lifts off with the Swift Gamma Ray Observatory on board from launch complex 17A. The payload has been used to observe and monitor gamma ray bursts and relay the information to scientists for 21 years. File Photo by Marino/Cantrell/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 20 (UPI) — NASA and Katalyst Space have announced that the mission to boost the altitude of a Swift Observatory space telescope has failed.

The announcement came down on Wednesday after an attempt to use the LINK spacecraft ran into altitude control issues, NASA and Katalyst Space said in a press release. The spacecraft was meant to raise NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory to a higher altitude.

LINK is still set to attempt rendezvous and proximity operations with the Swift Observatory.

“NASA should be willing to move quickly and take smart risks when the potential return is worth it, and that is exactly what we did with this mission,” Jared Isaacman, NASA administrator, said in a statement. “This is not the outcome we were working toward, but it does not change why this mission was worth attempting.”

If the mission was successful, LINK would have allowed the Swift Observatory to extend its mission, the press release says. NASA expects Swift to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere this year.

The Swift mission launched in 2004. The observatory has been used to study gamma-ray bursts. While planned originally as a two-year prime mission, it has remained in operation in low Earth orbit for 21 years.

Increased solar activity has caused what NASA describes as a rapid “decay” of Swift’s low Earth Orbit.

The LINK spacecraft was launched on a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket from Kawjalein Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands, in the South Pacific Ocean, on July 3.

Katalyst designed and manufactured LINK in less than a year after being awarded a $30 million Swift Boost contract from NASA in 2025.

“We knew this was a high-risk, high-reward mission — a first-of-its kind attempt, developed on an unprecedented timeline driven by the Sun’s activity,” Shawn Domagal-Goldman, director of NASA’s Astrophysics Division, said in a statement. “We were all hoping for more science from Swift. But we knew the takeaways from this mission would be worthwhile either way, and we have gained so much through the series of accomplishments up to this point.”

A three-armed spacecraft rockets into orbit to rescue a NASA telescope that’s in danger of crashing back to Earth.

NASA has launched a robotic mission to try to prevent one of its ageing telescopes from burning up in the atmosphere in a complicated operation expected to last several months.

Northrop Grumman launched the Link spacecraft – built by United States-based Katalyst Space Technologies – from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean on Friday.

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A Pegasus rocket blasted off from the belly of a modified aircraft putting Link on course to reach and capture NASA’s Swift Observatory in about a month.

Initially scheduled for Tuesday, the robot’s launch was postponed due to weather, then technical issues. Blast-off happened on Friday at 0836 GMT from an atoll in the Pacific Ocean.

The unprecedented $30m effort involves sending a robot to rescue the Swift space telescope that is falling towards Earth. If successful, the mission could pave the way for giving other satellites a second life.

Launched in 2004, Swift is sinking faster than ever because of recent solar storms. The $250m telescope studies gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful explosions in the universe.

Once it reaches an orbit close to Swift’s, the robot will deploy its solar panels and perform a series of checks.

It will then have to locate the Swift telescope in the vastness of space, circle around it and dock using three robotic arms – manoeuvres expected to take several weeks.

Finally, it will attempt to propel the satellite approximately 300km (186 miles) higher above the Earth, roughly to its initial orbital position. That operation is expected to last at least a month.

“This is a lot of firsts stacked on top of each other,” Shawn Domagal-Goldman, director of NASA’s astrophysics division, told reporters on Tuesday. “I’m just deeply thankful that we’re even giving this a go.”