--- title: "Military Funding “Resurrection” Mission for Derelict NASA Space Telescope" description: "Startup Rhea Space Activity has announced that it's planning to launch a mission to breathe new life into NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope." date: "2023-05-15" modified: "2023-05-15" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/military-resurrection-mission-spitzer" categories: - "Military" - "NASA" - "Science & Energy" - "Space" tags: - "Space Telescope" - "spitzer" - "the digest" --- # Military Funding “Resurrection” Mission for Derelict NASA Space Telescope ![Startup Rhea Space Activity has announced that it's planning to launch a mission to breathe new life into NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.]() *\Image: NASA / Futurism\* ## Play the Resurrector Space startup Rhea Space Activity [says it's received funding]() from the US Space Force to plan a mission to breathe new life into NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, which has been orbiting the Sun in safe mode for three years following its retirement. The startup's Spitzer Resurrector Mission involves sending a spacecraft to the telescope to service it — and eventually give it an exciting and entirely new job. Spitzer has 16 years of infrared light observations under its belt, but was retired in early 2020 and later succeeded by the James Webb Space Telescope in 2021. Instead of having it resume observations of the cosmos, the plan is to use it to detect potentially hazardous near-Earth objects instead. In other words, the company is hoping to resurrect Spitzer to help us spot hazardous asteroids before it's too late, in a thrifty plan that would make use of powerful hardware that's already in orbit. ## Spotting Asteroids Reviving the retired space telescope won't be an easy feat. As of right now, it's circling the Sun at twice the distance between the Earth and the Sun. There's also technically no way for NASA to get in touch with the telescope, meaning that Rhea would have to visit it with the help of a servicing spacecraft. Fortunately, the startup has plenty of well-established partners to help it realize its visions, including the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin. "This would be the most complex robotic mission ever performed by humanity," said Shawn Usman, astrophysicist and CEO of Rhea, in a statement. "As a teenager in the 1990s, I watched US astronauts repair the first Great Observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope, and now Rhea Space Activity has been given the opportunity to telerobotically extend the life of the last Great Observatory, the Spitzer Space Telescope." The startup is hoping to launch its mission by 2026 — if everything goes according to plan, which is no guarantee given the complexities involved. **More on Spitzer:** *[James Webb Provides Dazzling New Image of Neighboring Galaxy]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()