NASA is planning a $30 million Swift Observatory rescue mission

Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is designed to find and examine gamma-ray bursts thought to originate from the delivery of recent black holes. Gamma-ray bursts final a number of milliseconds to some minutes earlier than disappearing solely. Credit: NASA

NASA has awarded a contract to execute a high-stakes orbital maneuver, racing towards time and atmospheric drag to forestall a crucial science asset from tumbling again to Earth. The goal of this unprecedented rescue try is the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, a telescope that has spent twenty years finding out the universe’s strongest explosions, often known as gamma-ray bursts, however whose altitude is now quickly decaying.

In a transfer meant to increase the Swift mission’s science lifetime and advance U.S. capabilities in servicing satellites, NASA awarded Katalyst Space Technologies of Flagstaff, Arizona, a $30 million contract. Katalyst will try to rendezvous with the telescope and increase it to a better, extra secure orbit. 

If profitable, the Swift increase can be a primary: the primary time a business robotic spacecraft captures a authorities satellite tv for pc that’s uncrewed and was not initially designed to be serviced in area.

“Given how quickly Swift’s orbit is decaying, we are in a race against the clock, but by leveraging commercial technologies that are already in development, we are meeting this challenge head-on,” stated Shawn Domagal-Goldman, performing director of NASA’s astrophysics division, in a Sept. 24 news release.

Orbital decay

Launched in 2004, the $500 million Swift Observatory alerts NASA’s fleet of area telescopes of gamma-ray bursts the second they happen. Gamma-ray bursts are highly effective explosions — essentially the most highly effective for the reason that Big Bang — that emit gamma radiation. These occasions happen roughly as soon as a day and are available from all instructions. Now believed to point the delivery of a black gap, scientists are nonetheless unsure what causes them. Swift was constructed to reply that query.

The telescope stays absolutely operational however has been silently sliding towards an early finish. Like all objects in low Earth orbit, Swift has step by step been shedding altitude because of atmospheric drag. On high of that, current will increase within the Sun’s exercise has brought about Earth’s environment to swell, intensifying drag and rushing up the method. As a outcome, the observatory’s altitude has dropped from an preliminary 373 miles (600 km) to 249 miles (400 km). Because the satellite tv for pc has no propulsion system, it can not enter right into a safer orbit with out being boosted by one other spacecraft. It faces a 50 % likelihood of uncontrolled reentry by mid-2026, rising to 90 % by the top of that 12 months. This would imply the lack of a key scientific functionality, as there’s at the moment no deliberate substitute.

To stop an uncontrolled deorbit, NASA utilized its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program, awarding Katalyst a Phase III contract. NASA says it will permit it to pursue the orbit increase on a shorter growth timeline than would in any other case be doable. The mission will display a “rapid-response capability” by transferring from idea to implementation in lower than a 12 months, in line with Nicky Fox, affiliate administrator, in NASA’s information launch. The rescue plan mandates that Katalyst have to be able to launch in as little as eight months, with docking operations scheduled for June 2026.

Life extension

Swift isn’t the primary telescope the place NASA has thought of tapping trade for a reboost. NASA lately explored a business mission to reboost the growing older Hubble Space Telescope, together with a 2022 proposal from Jared Isaacman and SpaceX. However, after a feasibility examine, NASA declined to pursue that plan. Mark Clampin, director of the company’s Astrophysics Division, said the company didn’t wish to endure a “premature loss of science” or contaminate the telescope’s mirror, particularly since Hubble is at the moment working efficiently and is anticipated to final till the mid-2030s. By distinction, Swift’s decay is speedy, making Katalyst’s rescue mission pressing.

A significant problem for Katalyst is that Swift was not designed for such an operation. Unlike the Hubble Space Telescope, which was serviced by astronauts aboard the area shuttle, Swift has no exterior docking ports or grappling fixtures. Instead, the servicer craft will depend on what Katalyst calls a “custom-built robotic capture mechanism” designed to connect to a function on Swift’s principal construction with out damaging its delicate devices.

Success might “unlock a new era of on-orbit servicing where satellites can be routinely and regularly serviced instead of thrown away,” the corporate stated.

It might additionally “open the door to extending the life of more spacecraft in the future,” stated NASA’s Clayton Turner, affiliate administrator of the company’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, in its information launch.

National safety stakes

Satellite servicing capabilities have additionally emerged lately as essential for nationwide safety. China has already demonstrated on-orbit servicing talents in 2022, utilizing the uncrewed satellite tv for pc SJ-21 to tow a defunct satellite tv for pc. Katalyst’s operation — seize and dealing with of a totally operational spacecraft, one which was not designed to be docked or serviced — is a extra complicated activity that requires extra precision and comes with extra threat.

In a post on Katalyt’s website, the corporate stated it had initially deliberate to carry out an illustration flight in June 2026. “When NASA raised the alarm about Swift, Katalyst seized the opportunity to pivot to a live rescue operation which would demonstrate similar capabilities,” it stated.

Katalyst says the rescue try boosts the U.S.’ capabilities to shortly reply to threats in area. A Katalyst news release quoted General Stephen Whiting, Commander of U.S. Space Command, talking on the Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville final August: “Sustained space maneuver is crucial to our resilience and lethality through the mobility and endurance of our spacecraft.”