A bold satellite rescue mission came together in record time, but will it work?
a day ago
- #Orbital Decay
- #Spacecraft Servicing
- #NASA Mission Rescue
- NASA urgently sought companies to build and launch a satellite to save the $500 million Swift astronomy mission, which was at risk of crashing back to Earth.
- Startup Katalyst Space Technologies proposed a technically plausible solution and was awarded a $30 million contract in September to build and launch a servicing spacecraft.
- The plan involves Katalyst's Link spacecraft chasing down Swift, latching onto it with robotic arms, and boosting its orbit back to a safe altitude.
- Swift, launched in 2004 to detect gamma-ray bursts, has been decaying in low-Earth orbit due to aerodynamic drag and lacks thrusters to maintain its altitude.
- Swift's orbit has significantly decayed from 363 miles to 225 miles, and without intervention, it will continue to decay and eventually burn up on reentry.