It was an extremely ambitious mission with the best of intentions.
With the help of contractor Katalyst Space Technologies, NASA launched a specialized robotic spacecraft in July in a bid to give the agency’s aging Swift observatory a desperately-needed nudge.
But it didn’t take long for the unprecedented rescue attempt to spiral into a crisis — literally. The robot started spinning uncontrollably, causing it to tumble back towards the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere.
And now, Swift — which has been circling our planet for over two decades, providing scientists with invaluable observations of the cosmos — is about to succumb to a similar fate. The space telescope’s orbit is rapidly decaying, which will soon force NASA to wrap up the mission for good.
According to an update from the agency, Swift is currently orbiting the Earth at around 200 miles. By early to mid-October, it could dip below 185 miles, a threshold below which “spacecraft operations become more difficult and science observations will likely cease.”
But that hasn’t stopped scientists from eking out every bit of life out of the observatory. The team at NASA turned back on one of its three scientific instruments, the Burst Alert Telescope, which had to be shut off in April to conserve power while repositioning the spacecraft’s solar panels.
They’ve also allowed the observatory to once again automatically point its telescopes at new gamma ray bursts, the extremely high-energy flashes in the sky it was primarily designed to study.
However, that “return to science has caused Swift to resume its rapid sinking,” NASA notes, which doesn’t bode well for its imminent future.
Reentry through the atmosphere could prove fatal, not just for the aging observatory, but potentially for anything in its path as well. Fortunately, the risks of its remains falling on anyone’s head remain incredibly slim.
“While it’s possible some hardware from the Swift spacecraft may survive re-entry due to its size, the probability of debris causing significant property damage or physical harm to anyone is very small,” space tracking company LeoLabs wrote in a statement to CNN. “More likely, as is the case with most debris that survives re-entry, it will fall into the ocean or on land that’s uninhabited.”
NASA’s daring, but ultimately ill-fated, rescue mission proved too little too late. But contractor Katalyst is optimistic that future spacecraft aren’t necessarily doomed to meet their demise like Swift.
“While we did not accomplish every objective we set out to achieve, in less than a year we went from mission concept to launching and operating the first commercial space robot. This is a foundation we can build on,” Katalyst Space CEO Ghonhee Lee in an official statement.
“The future of space will require spacecraft that can do more once they get there,” he added. “We’re building toward that future.”
More on the telescope: NASA Rescue Mission Spirals Into Crisis