NASA races to save Swift telescope
NASA is racing to save its Swift telescope, which is drifting uncontrollably in orbit after a systems failure. Engineers must restore navigation and stabilize its orbit before the spacecraft decays and burns up in the atmosphere.
Background
- **Swift telescope**: NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, a space telescope launched in 2004. Its main job is to detect gamma-ray bursts — extremely energetic explosions in distant galaxies — and quickly point its instruments at them before they fade. It has been crucial for studying black holes, neutron stars, and the early universe.
- **The crisis**: Swift is in a rapidly-deteriorating orbit due to atmospheric drag, lower than planned. If NASA does not boost it soon, the telescope will re-enter the atmosphere and burn up, ending a mission that has operated far past its original 2-year design life.
- **The rescue**: NASA is planning a "daring" mission to rendezvous with Swift, attach a propulsion module (or otherwise boost its orbit), and extend its operational life — similar in spirit but different in technique from past satellite servicing missions. This is a rare, high-stakes operation for a science telescope.
- **Why it matters**: Swift is still producing high-impact science. Losing it would leave a gap in time-domain astronomy — the study of short-lived cosmic events that require rapid follow-up observation. Its successor missions are not yet operational.