NASA's mission to rescue Swift Observatory failed and is expected to crash into the atmosphere and burn up

NASA's mission to rescue the Swift Observatory failed. NASA stated on the 19th that because the robot responsible for the rescue encountered irreparable technical problems and was unable to complete the mission, it canceled the rescue operation. It is expected that the Swift Observatory will fall into the Earth's atmosphere and burn up.

According to reports from Reuters, AFP and CBS News, Katalyst Space Technologies' LINK unmanned spacecraft, which was commissioned by NASA to perform the rescue mission, was launched in early July. However, it began to spin out of control shortly after arriving in space. The company's engineers spent weeks and were still unable to control the spacecraft. Katalyst and NASA said in a joint statement on the 19th that "due to ongoing attitude control issues, this mission will cancel the capture of the Swift Observatory and raise its orbit."

The failure of the rescue mission means that the Swift Observatory may naturally fall into the Earth's atmosphere and burn up later this year. "This is not the outcome we were hoping for, but it doesn't change why this mission is worth trying," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said. Nexus will continue to operate near the Swift satellite to demonstrate its capabilities for future rescue missions.

The Swift Observatory, which cost $500 million to build and was launched in 2004, is mainly used to observe the most powerful explosions in the universe, such as "gamma ray bursts." However, after 20 years of service, its orbital altitude is gradually decreasing due to the extremely high upper atmospheric drag extending into low-Earth orbit. Solar storms will heat and expand the atmosphere, further increasing drag. Swift itself has no thrusters to offset this downward pull. As of last week, its orbital altitude was about 347 kilometers.

NASA invested US$30 million in this mission. It originally planned for the "Connection" to capture the Swift satellite in space and then push it to an orbit about 600 kilometers high to extend its life. This is also the first time the United States has attempted such a mission. Without intervention, Swift is expected to drop to an altitude of about 300 kilometers in October, and its descent will accelerate as it gradually enters the denser upper atmosphere.