NASA drops Swift rescue after LINK probe stalls 15 km away

NASA called off the orbital mission of the LINK spacecraft intended to raise the path of the Neil Gehrels Swift space observatory after propulsion control failures crippled the craft in Earth orbit. The rescue vehicle reached orbit on July 3 aboard a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket.

Propulsion failures halt the orbital rescue effort

Engineers at Katalyst Space built the spacecraft in Arizona in less than twelve months to counter the sharp altitude loss of the observatory before the vehicle entered an uncontrollable spin along its flight path roughly three weeks after launch. Flight planners had regarded the emergency maneuver as an extreme recovery gamble from the project inception. Technical hurdles surfaced immediately.

The loss of attitude authority doomed the Swift satellite to disintegrate in the upper atmosphere of Earth before the end of the year. The LINK probe will undergo atmospheric reentry within weeks under identical gravitational decay.

More on this story: NASA’s LINK probe faces technical problems while trying to save Swift space telescope

Proximity maneuvers test robotic arms in low orbit

The stranded servicer failed to dock with the astronomical observatory for the intended boost. The craft still fired all three of its electric thrusters successfully during orbital approaches. Those steering burns brought the vehicle within a range of 12 to 15 kilometers from the Neil Gehrels Swift spacecraft before controllers concluded scheduled operations.

Katalyst Space personnel commanded the deployment of three mechanical arms built to latch onto the target satellite. Engineers are gathering telemetry and validating hardware during the remaining orbital lifetime of both platforms to guide upcoming satellite servicing operations.

Key operational milestones of the flight profile

Katalyst Space assembled the experimental hardware under intense schedule pressure to demonstrate unproven robotic capture techniques in low Earth orbit.

• Pegasus XL rocket deployed the spacecraft into orbit on July 3
• Proximity operations achieved a separation distance between 12 and 15 kilometers
• Ground teams activated three electric propulsion units and three robotic capture arms
• Katalyst Space completed design and fabrication work in under one year

Scientific observations span two decades of space monitoring

The Neil Gehrels Swift observatory launched into orbit in November 2004 to track gamma-ray bursts, supernovas, black hole flares, and fast radio bursts. Elevated solar activity over the past year generated atmospheric drag that rapidly degraded the altitude of the aging science platform.

Two of the three primary scientific instruments resumed regular operations in late August. Astronomers had idled the X-ray telescope and the ultraviolet optical telescope in February to curb aerodynamic drag on the chassis. Those onboard sensors will collect scientific measurements until the observatory burns in the atmosphere.