Rescue mission for ageing Nasa space telescope fails
A mission to extend the life of NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has been cancelled after the rescue spacecraft, built by Katalyst Space, suffered uncontrollable spinning. The failure means the $500 million telescope will likely burn up in Earth's atmosphere later this year.
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This event highlights the risks and technical challenges associated with the emerging private-sector space servicing industry.
A mission to rescue Nasa’s ageing Swift observatory in space was cancelled on Wednesday after the spacecraft that was launched to tug the satellite to a higher orbit suffered irredeemable technical issues in space, the rescue craft’s owner, Katalyst Space, said.
Katalyst’s Link craft was launched in early July to approach the observatory, also known as Swift, some 347km (216 miles) in space, grapple onto it and then tug it to a higher orbit of roughly 600km (373 miles), extending its life by years.
But the Link craft began spinning uncontrollably soon after reaching space. Katalyst engineers spent weeks trying to regain control of the craft, uploading new positioning control software last week that slowed but did not stop its errant spinning.
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