NASA mission to save its sinking space telescope fails

NASA had hoped to prevent its Swift observatory from breaking apart in Earth’s atmosphere. But the spacecraft tasked with the rescue hit problems.

A mission to prevent a NASA space telescope from coming to a fiery demise in Earth’s atmosphere has failed, the agency announced Wednesday.

The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, which launched into low Earth orbit in 2004, has been rapidly sinking in its orbit around Earth and is expected to plunge through the atmosphere later this year, breaking apart on re-entry.

Last month, NASA launched a first-of-its-kind rescue mission to boost the Swift observatory to a higher altitude, aiming to extend its life and keep its science work going. To do that, the Arizona-based company Katalyst Space Technologies developed a spacecraft called LINK, which was designed to capture the observatory and raise its orbit over several months.

LINK launched July 3 on Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus XL rocket. Then the problems began.

Mission managers successfully established communications with LINK after launch, but less than two weeks into the flight, teams began reporting problems with the probe’s orientation.