Rush Rescue Mission for NASA's $500M Space Telescope Fails
Remember that rush rescue mission for NASA's $500M space telescope? It failed, reports CNN, and the LINK satellite won't be able to boost the telescope's orbit. NASA says its decades-old Swift telescope will now continue losing altitude, until it reaches Earth's atmosphere later this year and burns up. CNN reports: Just weeks after LINK lifted off on July 3, it started to spin out of control.…
NASA's $500 million space telescope, Swift, has failed in its attempt to be rescued by the LINK satellite, according to CNN. Despite a rushed rescue mission, the LINK satellite spun out of control shortly after its July 3 launch, delaying its rendezvous with Swift by about a month. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman acknowledged that the outcome was not what they were hoping for, but emphasized that the mission was still worth attempting because it could advance satellite servicing capabilities.
The team will now continue with their plan for LINK to rendezvous with Swift, but as a demonstration rather than a rescue attempt. This mission aims to learn valuable lessons from the attempt, which could be applied to future rendezvous and proximity operations and satellite servicing. Swift, which was not designed for space servicing, will continue to lose altitude and eventually burn up in Earth's atmosphere later this year.
Katalyst Space Technologies, the company behind LINK, expressed their commitment to turning the lessons learned from this mission into a durable playbook for future endeavors.
Written by urgent.news from Slashdot's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
This story
This is one outlet's version. Read the fullest account.
- 'This is not the outcome we were working towards': $30 million mission to save NASA's Swift telescope fails livescience.com
- NASA Cancels Its Rescue Mission for the Aging Swift Telescope wired.com
- NASA abandons orbit-boosting rescue mission for space observatory science.org
- NASA abandons plan to boost Swift telescope after rescue mission fails indianexpress.com
