Florida — A three-armed spacecraft was launched into orbit on Friday to rescue a telescope from NASA that is in danger of crashing into Earth.
Northrop Grumman launched Katalyst Space Technologies’ Link spacecraft from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific. The Pegasus rocket took off from the underside of a modified aircraft, putting Link on course to reach and capture NASA’s Swift Observatory in approximately one month.
Launched in 2004, the Swift telescope is sinking faster than ever due to recent solar storms. NASA is paying $30 million to Katalyst to capture the telescope and raise its orbit, so it can continue recording some of the biggest explosions in the universe, such as gamma-ray bursts and stellar explosions.
If all goes well, Swift could return to exploring the cosmos in September. Observations are currently suspended to preserve the telescope’s orbit for as long as possible.
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NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope could be a candidate for a similar rescue operation in a few years. Additionally, it is losing altitude due to increased atmospheric drag caused by solar flares.
The 1.6-ton (1.4-metric ton) Swift telescope is currently orbiting 360 kilometers (224 miles) above Earth. The Katalyst project aims to raise the telescope’s altitude by 240 kilometers (150 miles), back to its starting point. Link’s thrusters will be activated to push Swift slowly, thus avoiding sudden movements.
Katalyst organized the mission in just nine months. NASA insisted it be done urgently because the telescope will be too low to recover before the fall. Without help, it is expected to crash in October.
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Bad weather and technical issues caused a series of last-minute delays in the launch.
“This is a high-risk, high-reward mission,” declared Ghonhee Lee, CEO of Katalyst Space, before the launch. “The greatest danger was always that we wouldn’t launch anything and that Swift would disintegrate in the atmosphere. That is why we always tried to avoid that risk, and our team has succeeded.”
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