NASA Cancels Its Rescue Mission for the Aging Swift Telescope
NASA has officially canceled a mission to rescue the aging Swift telescope after the robotic spacecraft tasked with the job, LINK, suffered critical control system failures. The telescope is expected to reenter Earth's atmosphere by 2026 due to increased atmospheric drag caused by solar activity.
Why it matters
The failure of this complex robotic rescue mission marks the end of a significant scientific observatory and highlights the technical challenges of orbital maintenance.
Swift doesn’t have a propulsion system capable of significantly raising its orbit. Although it is hundreds of kilometers above the Earth’s surface, there are still atmospheric particles at that altitude that exert a small but constant drag on the satellite. With each orbit around Earth, it loses a tiny amount of energy and, little by little, altitude as well. If this process continues without intervention it will eventually reenter the atmosphere.
NASA knew that Swift had limited time left. Some models had indicated that the observatory could remain in orbit until the 2030s, but increased solar activity during 2024 changed those projections. Energy from the sun heated and expanded the upper layers of Earth’s atmosphere, increasing the drag on the satellite and accelerating its descent. Estimates eventually placed its likely reentry before the end of 2026.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in