NASA's Swift Boost mission will launch later this month to rescue a falling telescope
Key takeaways
- The Swift Boost rescue mission will soon head to space.
- NASA/Ron Beard The NASA Swift Boost mission is on track to launch later this month to rescue the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, whose orbit is decaying faster than anticipated.
- NASA teamed up with Arizona company Katalyst Space last year to build LINK, a robotic spacecraft designed to dock with the observatory and tug it to a higher orbit.
The Swift Boost rescue mission will soon head to space.
NASA/Ron Beard The NASA Swift Boost mission is on track to launch later this month to rescue the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, whose orbit is decaying faster than anticipated. In other words, the space telescope is falling is too fast, and the agency intends to rendezvous with it and keep it in space for a few more years than it would have lasted without intervention. According to the publication Space, launch has been set for June 27.
NASA teamed up with Arizona company Katalyst Space last year to build LINK, a robotic spacecraft designed to dock with the observatory and tug it to a higher orbit. On June 9, engineers at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia finished installing LINK to a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket. A few days later, on June 12, they attached the rocket to the belly of a Northrop Grumman plane called Stargazer. The plane left Wallops on June 18 for Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific Ocean where it will take off in a week's time.