By Marcia DunnAP Aerospace Writer\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Sept. 27, 2026 10:50 AM PT <\/p>\n
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The robotic spacecraft that failed to rescue an aging NASA telescope has plunged back to Earth less than three months after launching on the bold mission.<\/p>\n
Katalyst Space Technologies announced the demise of its three-armed spacecraft named Link. It disintegrated upon reentering the atmosphere overnight Friday, bringing the $30-million, NASA-sponsored salvage effort of the Swift Observatory to a close.<\/p>\n
Swift is expected to follow in early November as its orbit steadily sinks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we\u2019ll be sad to see Swift\u2019s mission come to a close, we knew this boost effort would be worthwhile either way,\u201d NASA\u2019s Shawn Domagal-Goldman said in a statement. <\/p>\n
It provided valuable practice for future satellite-rescue missions and pushed teams to rush against the clock like never before, Domagal-Goldman added. <\/p>\n
Thrown together in less than a year, Link was supposed to capture the 22-year-old Swift and then boost it to a higher, longer-lasting orbit so it could keep observing some of the biggest explosions in the universe. The sun\u2019s intense flare-ups had put the telescope on a downward spiral faster than engineers anticipated.<\/p>\n
To buy time, NASA suspended observations early this year and repositioned Swift to minimize the atmosphere\u2019s downward drag. Otherwise, the telescope would have come down before help could arrive, according to managers.<\/p>\n
Link launched on July 3 but quickly ran into electronic problems that took out two of the three reaction wheels needed to turn the spacecraft. Then a bad valve sent the satellite into a fast spin that disrupted communication. Engineers regained control, but Link didn\u2019t have enough fuel left to carry out its job, and the rescue effort was called off in August.<\/p>\n
Katalyst used the few weeks remaining to practice moving Link\u2019s robot arms, each about 3 feet long with a hand-like gripper on the end. Flight controllers even managed to guide the spacecraft to within nine miles of Swift, close enough to snap pictures.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew from the beginning that this was an ambitious mission on an aggressive timeline,\u201d Katalyst Chief Executive Ghonhee Lee said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Lee said the company will carry all the lessons learned to its future satellite-recovery endeavors. \u201cThis is a foundation we can build on,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Swift is back to scanning the universe in the month or so that it has left.<\/p>\n
Launched in 2004, the $364-million observatory is designed to pivot quickly \u2014 as its name suggests \u2014 to capture gamma ray bursts, exploding stars and other fast-breaking cosmic action. That ability allows Swift to serve as a lookout or first responder for other telescopes that can follow its lead. NASA is scrambling to see how it now will fill that gap.<\/p>\n
Dunn writes for the Associated Press. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Marcia DunnAP Aerospace Writer\u00a0 Sept. 27, 2026 10:50 AM PT CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The robotic spacecraft that failed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[28195,651,10474,3146,44309,58,7239,132383,111,139,69,147,302123,34603,9343,11208,23272,302122,379],"class_list":["post-613650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-atmosphere","tag-close","tag-control","tag-earth","tag-engineer","tag-link","tag-mission","tag-nasa-telescope","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-shawn-domagal-goldman","tag-spacecraft","tag-statement","tag-swift","tag-universe","tag-valuable-practice","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}