On Wednesday, NASA announced that a rescue spacecraft that was meant to grab onto the space agency’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and push it into a higher altitude will not proceed. With the rescue mission called off, Swift, which has observed distant, powerful explosions in the cosmos since 2004, is expected to burn up in the atmosphere later this year.
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Last September, NASA hired a small company, Katalyst Space Technologies, of Flagstaff, Ariz., for $30 million to put together a mission to save Swift on an extremely rushed schedule. That limited the amount of testing that could be conducted to prepare for contingencies.
In about nine months, Katalyst built the refrigerator-size rescue spacecraft named Link, which successfully launched on July 3.
Link was moving closer to Swift but unexpectedly started tumbling on July 25. Katalyst was able to slow the spin of Link, and company officials were optimistic the spacecraft would be able to proceed with their schedule delayed by just a couple of weeks.
But, on Wednesday, Ghonhee Lee, the chief executive of Katalyst, said the optimism did not prove out. The tumbling appears to have been caused by a malfunction with the maneuvering thrusters. Katalyst engineers used the main electric propulsion engines instead to get the spacecraft under control, writing new software using those to maneuver Link instead of the thrusters.
That, however, did not provide sufficient precision, so the thrusters, most of which still worked, were brought back in operation. That led to the next problem. The electric propulsion engines and the thrusters both use xenon gas, and Link did not have enough fuel to complete the task of capturing Swift and pushing it upward.
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Link will no longer attempt to capture or boost the space telescope but will still match the orbit of Swift, operating within a few miles to demonstrate capabilities that could be used for future missions. “I still hope that we’re going to be able to complete some elements of rendezvous and proximity operations over the coming weeks,” Mr. Lee said.
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