A Satellite Falling Out of Orbit Embarks on Its Final Mission
NASA's Swift satellite, a long-serving observatory for cosmic phenomena, is set to reenter Earth's atmosphere after a failed robotic rescue mission. Despite the mission's cancellation, the operations team plans to maximize scientific data collection before the satellite burns up.
Why it matters
The loss of the Swift observatory marks the end of a critical tool for monitoring explosive cosmic events like black holes and supernovas.
The plan was for robotic arms on the probe, known as LINK, to grab onto the aging satellite and—with a powerful set of thrusters—drag the observatory back into position. The rescue robot was launched into space this past July but soon after suffered issues with its altitude systems, a key set of controls for moving in space. The mission had to be canceled.
“Swift wasn't designed to be serviced,” Ghonhee Lee—CEO of Katalyst Space, the company that developed LINK—stated just before the probe’s launch. And as Shawn Domagal-Goldman, director of NASA’s astrophysics division, also noted at the time, this was “a high-risk, high-reward mission.”
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