NASA, Katalyst call off SWIFT rescue mission over issues with rescue craft in space
- On Wednesday, NASA called off the mission to rescue the sinking Swift Observatory, dooming the telescope to a fiery atmospheric reentry later this year.
- Katalyst Space Technologies' Link spacecraft entered an uncontrollable spin weeks after its July launch, with persistent pointing and positioning issues eventually forcing the mission's cancellation.
- NASA paid $30 million to Katalyst to raise the telescope to a safer orbit; Swift has tracked universe explosions for more than 20 years before this setback.
- Katalyst CEO Ghonhee Lee said "we have already learned a tremendous amount," and the company will keep Link in orbit near Swift to demonstrate future rescue capabilities.
- NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman called the mission "worth attempting" despite the cancellation, while the 36-year-old Hubble Space Telescope also faces orbital decay from solar outbursts.
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The mission to save the Swift space telescope has failed, reports the American space agency NASA. A space robot from the American start-up Katalyst was supposed to grab the aging device and push it into a higher orbit, but failed to do so. The telescope now faces its final demise in the Earth's atmosphere.
SCIENCE & TECH: Mission to save NASA’s aging Swift space telescope called off
The mission to save NASA’s sinking Swift Observatory was called off Wednesday, dooming the telescope to a fiery reentry later this year. NASA and Katalyst Space Technologies announced the news more than a month after the startup’s Link spacecraft rocketed away to the telescope’s rescue. Katalyst said Link will not attempt to capture Swift and boost it to a higher orbit because of problems with controlling the spacecraft. NASA said this means the…
The LINK spacecraft began to spin uncontrollably after its launch and will not be able to dock with the valuable Swift space telescope. The post NASA space telescope falls to Earth after failure in rescue mission appeared first on in.gr.
NASA Cancels the Rescue of the Swift Telescope and Confirms Its Fall to Earth by the End of the Year
NASA's Swift space telescope has been in danger since the degradation of its orbit was accelerated in 2025 by an increase in solar activity. Faced with this scenario, the US space agency decided to break into its scientific observations and launch a robotic ship to prevent its uncontrolled re-entry to Earth, so Katalyst Space launched the LINK probe with the intention of approaching the telescope and capturing it autonomously to raise its orbit.
The unique attempt to save the aging NASA Swift space telescope from destruction has been definitively called off. The rescue vessel that the...
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