{"id":836363,"date":"2026-09-04T16:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T16:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/836363\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T16:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T16:10:09","slug":"private-spacecraft-gets-close-to-doomed-nasa-telescope-but-wont-be-able-to-save-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/836363\/","title":{"rendered":"Private spacecraft gets close to doomed NASA telescope but won’t be able to save it"},"content":{"rendered":"

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) \u2014 A private spacecraft that was supposed to supply a lifeline to NASA\u2019s Swift Observatory<\/a> managed to get close to the sinking telescope and even snap photos more than a week after the rescue was abandoned<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the three-armed robotic salvager had to turn away because of low fuel, according to Katalyst Space Technologies, which attempted the daring operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got so close, but so far,\u201d Katalyst CEO Ghonhee Lee told The Associated Press this week. <\/p>\n

Katalyst\u2019s Link spacecraft got within 15 kilometers (nine miles) of Swift last weekend, using its own sensors to gather data on the doomed telescope for NASA. The rescue effort had already been called off in August because of Link\u2019s own troubles in orbit, but the company wanted the practice for future satellite service calls.<\/p>\n

Link went into an uncontrollable spin soon after rocketing to Swift\u2019s rescue in July. Flight controllers managed to reduce the tumble and stabilize the spacecraft, using up precious fuel. In the end, there wasn\u2019t enough fuel remaining to boost the aging Swift to a higher, longer-lasting orbit so it could continue observing the cosmos.<\/p>\n

Lee blamed Link\u2019s problems on the rush to get it flying. The mission was thrown together in just nine months, and engineers often had to grab whatever was available instead of waiting for the preferred parts, he said.<\/p>\n

NASA paid the company $30 million to carry out the attempt, which was always going to be rushed. Both sides viewed it as an experiment with little to lose, although no one wanted a wreck that would unleash clouds of space debris.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, it wasn\u2019t the outcome that we were expecting,\u201d NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman<\/a> said following Sunday\u2019s launch of the Roman Space Telescope<\/a>. \u201cBut that\u2019s exactly the type of missions that we should be flying at NASA. We will learn from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isaacman said it makes sense to extend the life of a valuable spacecraft, especially if the cost to salvage it is less than to replace it. That\u2019s why the Roman telescope was designed to be refuelable even though it\u2019s headed toward an observation point 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) away.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unlikely that Link has enough fuel left to attempt another close approach to Swift, according to Lee. But it can keep exercising its 3-foot (1-meter) arms and provide important data before it reenters and burns up in the atmosphere sometime in the next month, he said.<\/p>\n

Launched in 2004, Swift has a little more time remaining in orbit, depending on how active the sun is. Intense solar storms of recent years are responsible for bringing the telescope down much sooner than expected. <\/p>\n

NASA anticipates Swift will plunge through the atmosphere sometime between October and year\u2019s end. The space agency resumed observations with the telescope last week after halting them early this year to save precious power. <\/p>\n

Like Swift, the Hubble Space Telescope\u2019s orbit also has been shortened by solar activity. Katalyst is developing a next-generation spacecraft that could boost the 36-year-old Hubble to a longer-lasting orbit.<\/p>\n

\u201cHubble does still have a few years of life yet, right? So the good news is this isn\u2019t imminent,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n

Servicing old telescopes and other satellites used to be \u201ca very, very niche concept,\u201d he added, \u201cand we believe it\u2019s going to become more and more commonplace.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The Associated Press\u2019 health and science coverage receives financial support from the AP Fund for Journalism<\/a> and private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s standards<\/a> for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) \u2014 A private spacecraft that was supposed to supply a lifeline to NASA\u2019s Swift…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":836364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[9178,3827,793,4762,79,9176,74,965],"class_list":["post-836363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-aerospace-and-defense-industry","tag-domestic-news","tag-general-news","tag-national-aeronautics-and-space-administration","tag-science","tag-spacecraft","tag-technology","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836363","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=836363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}