Nasa’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has spent more than two decades studying gamma-ray bursts and could soon receive an unprecedented orbital rescue.
(Image: swift)Nasa is preparing an unprecedented mission to save one of its most successful space telescopes from falling out of orbit and burning up in Earth’s atmosphere.
The agency’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, launched in 2004 to study powerful cosmic explosions known as gamma-ray bursts, is gradually losing altitude due to increasing atmospheric drag.
Without intervention, scientists estimate the spacecraft could re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and be destroyed before the end of 2026.
Rather than allowing that to happen, Nasa decided to attempt something never done before: sending a commercial spacecraft to rendezvous with the ageing observatory, capture it, and boost it into a higher orbit.
Nasa’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has spent more than two decades studying gamma-ray bursts and could soon receive an unprecedented orbital rescue. (Image: swift)
Nasa is preparing an unprecedented mission to save one of its most successful space telescopes from falling out of orbit and burning up in Earth’s atmosphere.
The agency’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, launched in 2004 to study powerful cosmic explosions known as gamma-ray bursts, is gradually losing altitude due to increasing atmospheric drag. Without intervention, scientists estimate the spacecraft could re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and be destroyed before the end of 2026.
Rather than allowing that to happen, Nasa decided to attempt something never done before: sending a commercial spacecraft to rendezvous with the ageing observatory, capture it, and boost it into a higher orbit.
