{"id":790272,"date":"2026-07-28T23:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T23:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/790272\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T23:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T23:54:09","slug":"private-mission-to-save-nasas-swift-observatory-runs-into-trouble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/790272\/","title":{"rendered":"Private mission to save NASA’s Swift Observatory runs into trouble"},"content":{"rendered":"

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) \u2014 The spacecraft rushing to the rescue of an aging and sinking NASA telescope<\/a> has run into its own problem. <\/p>\n

Katalyst Space Technologies said Tuesday that its Link satellite is experiencing thruster problems and has gone into an uncontrollable spin that is disrupting communication. <\/p>\n

The trouble struck over the weekend, three weeks after the three-armed robotic spacecraft blasted into orbit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The startup company said it\u2019s working nonstop to get Link back in action so it can capture Swift and boost the telescope to a higher orbit. Swift will crash back to Earth this fall without help. NASA is paying $30 million for the rescue effort, which was thrown together in under a year.<\/p>\n

Launched in 2004, Swift is descending faster than expected because of recent solar activity. It needs a lift as soon as possible in order to continue scanning the universe for some of the biggest explosions, including gamma ray bursts and exploded stars. Scientific observations are on hold until then. <\/p>\n

Neither Katalyst nor NASA is giving up hope. All of Link\u2019s other major subsystems appear to be doing fine, according to the company.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mission remains active and we continue to believe that with these changes, Link has a viable path to rendezvous with Swift,\u201d Katalyst said in a statement.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute\u2019s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) \u2014 The spacecraft rushing to the rescue of an aging and sinking NASA telescope…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":790273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[9178,793,4762,79,193,9176,795],"class_list":["post-790272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-aerospace-and-defense-industry","tag-general-news","tag-national-aeronautics-and-space-administration","tag-science","tag-space","tag-spacecraft","tag-u-s-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}