Space: Unprecedented NASA Satellite Rescue Mission Fails
With a rescue mission scheduled at short notice, Nasa wanted to save an important sky observatory. But nothing came of the spectacular project.
A NASA mission to rescue the Swift research satellite has failed. The Link unmanned spacecraft, developed by Katalyst Space for $30 million, was designed to retrieve Swift and return it to its original orbit. However, NASA announced that a problem with Link's control system meant the rescue attempt would be abandoned. Despite this, Link will still approach the Swift observatory, which is currently in a power-saving mode and at risk of crashing to Earth due to strong geomagnetic storms. The failure means Swift will likely re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and burn up later this year.
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's report — not a translation of it. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
