NASA's Attempt To Save Its Aging Swift Telescope Has Failed

NASA has spent months trying to rescue one of its most important space telescopes from an early return to Earth, going so far as to employ the services of Katalyst Space Technologies. Katalyst built a robotic spacecraft that was designed to find the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, grab it, and push it into a higher orbit.

Unfortunately, those efforts proved ineffective. Katalys’s three-armed Link spacecraft developed significant issues shortly after reaching orbit, forcing NASA to abandon the rescue mission. Eventually, Link managed to approach the telescope and photograph it, but the robotic spacecraft itself reentered Earth's atmosphere on September 25, bringing the $30 million rescue effort to an end. NASA officials now expect Swift to follow suit sometime in early November.

Swift Has Been Watching The Universe For More Than 20 Years

NASA’s Swift Observatory has been in orbit since 2004, when NASA launched it to study some of the universe’s most rapidly changing events. The telescope is particularly known for detecting gamma-ray bursts, which are powerful explosions that occur when stars die or compact objects collide. Swift is designed to quickly detect and turn its instruments toward these events, making it possible for scientists to study them as they unfold.

Because of its responsive nature, NASA has often described Swift as a “cosmic first responder.” Swift spent more than 20 years detecting a sudden event and alerting other telescopes, so follow-up observations could be made from Earth.

The NASA Swift Observatory far exceeded all expectations that scientists had for it. When it launched in 2004, the telescope was expected to spend two years in space. Now, more than two decades later, its time is coming to an end.

The Sun Was Pulling Swift Down