CAPE CANAVERAL: A private spacecraft that was supposed to supply a lifeline to NASA's Swift Observatory managed to get close to the sinking telescope and even snap photos more than a week after the rescue was abandoned.
But the three-armed robotic salvager had to turn away because of low fuel, according to Katalyst Space Technologies, which attempted the daring operation.
“We got so close, but so far,” Katalyst CEO Ghonhee Lee told The Associated Press this week.
Katalyst's Link spacecraft got within 15 kilometres (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's own troubles in orbit, but the company wanted the practice for future satellite service calls.
Link went into an uncontrollable spin soon after rocketing to Swift's rescue in July. Flight controllers managed to reduce the tumble and stabilise the spacecraft, using up precious fuel. In the end, there wasn't enough fuel remaining to boost the ageing Swift to a higher, longer-lasting orbit so it could continue observing the cosmos.
Lee blamed Link's 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.
NASA paid the company USD 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.
“Unfortunately, it wasn't the outcome that we were expecting,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said following Sunday's launch of the Roman Space Telescope. “But that's exactly the type of missions that we should be flying at NASA. We will learn from that.”
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's why the Roman telescope was designed to be refuelable even though it's headed toward an observation point 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometres) away.
It's 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-metre) arms and provide important data before it reenters and burns up in the atmosphere sometime in the next month, he said.
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.
NASA anticipates Swift will plunge through the atmosphere sometime between October and year's end. The space agency resumed observations with the telescope last week after halting them early this year to save precious power.
Like Swift, the Hubble Space Telescope's 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.
“Hubble does still have a few years of life yet, right? So the good news is this isn't imminent," Lee said.
Servicing old telescopes and other satellites used to be “a very, very niche concept," he added, “and we believe it's going to become more and more commonplace.”