{"id":765884,"date":"2026-06-28T14:39:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T14:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/765884\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T14:39:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T14:39:15","slug":"nasa-races-to-save-swift-telescope-hubble-next-southern-cross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/765884\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA races to save Swift telescope &#8211; Hubble next | Southern Cross"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The life of the Hubble Space Telescope may be extended with a rescue mission in 2028. Photo: AP PHOTO\" class=\"mx-auto w-full\" fetchpriority=\"high\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782657554_644_r0_0_800_600_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg\" title=\"The life of the Hubble Space Telescope may be extended with a rescue mission in 2028. Photo: AP PHOTO\"\/>The life of the Hubble Space Telescope may be extended with a rescue mission in 2028. Photo: AP PHOTO<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_wrapper__6w7GG\">NASA is racing to save an aging telescope from falling back to Earth with a daring rescue mission. <\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_wrapper__6w7GG\">The $30 million salvage operation gets underway as soon as this week with the planned launch of a robotic lifesaver. <\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_wrapper__6w7GG\">NASA hired startup Katalyst Space Technologies to boost the Swift Observatory to a higher orbit where it can continue hunting for some of the universe&#8217;s biggest explosions. <\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_wrapper__6w7GG\">A three-armed spacecraft built by Katalyst will chase after Swift once it takes off from an atoll in the Pacific&#8217;s Marshall Islands aboard an airplane-launched Pegasus rocket. Liftoff could occur as early as Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_wrapper__6w7GG\">Scanning the cosmos since its launch in 2004, Swift has been sinking faster and faster because of recent intense solar activity. It needs to get to a higher, more stable orbit as soon as possible to survive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_wrapper__6w7GG\">NASA&#8217;s Hubble Space Telescope \u2014 also at risk \u2014 could be next.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_wrapper__6w7GG\">Like Swift, Hubble is losing altitude as the sun erupts with one flare after another. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The Swift rescue mission will be conducted by Katalyst Space Technologies. (AP PHOTO)\" class=\"mx-auto w-full\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782657555_458_r0_0_1280_720_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg\" title=\"The Swift rescue mission will be conducted by Katalyst Space Technologies. (AP PHOTO)\"\/>The Swift rescue mission will be conducted by Katalyst Space Technologies. (AP PHOTO)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_wrapper__6w7GG\">Now 36 years old, it received repeat servicing by spacewalking astronauts during the shuttle era, and could now get a lift-extending boost in 2028.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_wrapper__6w7GG\">Katalyst space chief executive Ghonhee Lee said his company&#8217;s next-generation robot, still in development, could save the day for the much bigger Hubble.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_wrapper__6w7GG\">It will take Katalyst&#8217;s autonomous spacecraft, named Lift, about a month to rendezvous with Swift and catch it, and another couple of months to raise its orbit from the current 360 km to the desired 600 km. <\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_wrapper__6w7GG\">The gamma ray observatory must be above 300 km for the rescue to work. It&#8217;s expected to reach that point of no return in October, according to the latest estimates.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_wrapper__6w7GG\">If all goes well, Swift could be back in business by September, according to Lee.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_wrapper__6w7GG\">&#8220;I have to be honest. No one thought it was going to be possible. No one thought we would get as far as we&#8217;ve already gotten today,&#8221; said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, NASA&#8217;s astrophysics director.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_wrapper__6w7GG\">True to its name, Swift is designed to pivot quickly to capture late-breaking astronomical events such as gamma ray bursts and exploding stars. <\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_wrapper__6w7GG\">Australian Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The life of the Hubble Space Telescope may be extended with a rescue mission in 2028. Photo: AP&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":765885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[64,63,128],"class_list":["post-765884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=765884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/765885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}