Swift Boost Mission: An opportunity for science and defense
Key takeaways
- Instead of letting a 22-year-old space telescope fall to Earth, NASA wants to rescue the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory with a robotic spacecraft designed to boost the telescope back into higher orbit.
- Not only is it aiming to rescue a two-decade-old space-based telescope with an emergency mission designed and developed in about a year, but it will also launch that mission from the belly of an airplane.
- Packed into a Pegasus XL rocket — the world's only airborne-launched rocket — a robotic spacecraft called LINK is supposed to boost the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory back into its orbit.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
Instead of letting a 22-year-old space telescope fall to Earth, NASA wants to rescue the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory with a robotic spacecraft designed to boost the telescope back into higher orbit.
https://p.dw.com/p/5GJFXIt's cheaper to send a servicing robot into space in a small rocket than to build and launch a new space telescope Image: NASAAdvertisement Despite everything that US government bodies have faced under the Trump administration, from budget cuts to blocked websites, NASA's still good for innovation.
Not only is it aiming to rescue a two-decade-old space-based telescope with an emergency mission designed and developed in about a year, but it will also launch that mission from the belly of an airplane.