The last update I saw and posted was back on August 7th, and while the complete loss of attitude control that had occurred has been reduced to lower levels, Katalyst said that “ongoing attitude control issues” will prevent the Link satellite from completing its rescue mission. While the Neil Gehrels Swift observatory and LINK rescue satellite remain close to each other in orbit, they won't try to rescue Swift, leaving it to re-enter the atmosphere. NASA had estimated they need to boost Swift before its orbit decays to lower than 186 miles, and estimated that will happen "by October."
The spacecraft is still alive, and Katalyst said it will make the most of Link’s remaining capacity, which may still allow it to get near enough to Swift for a demonstration of the satellite’s close-in navigation system.
“While the mission will not have the ending we originally intended, NASA and Katalyst are assessing what milestones remain ahead,” Katalyst said in a statement. “We will continue working to extract technical and operational value from the spacecraft.”
While the rescue will not be attempted, the two spacecraft are still close to each other in orbit, and LINK will still attempt to conduct rendezvous and proximity operations with Swift to demonstrate key capabilities for the future of space exploration.
The Swift rescue was always a risky program, and was developed on an unprecedentedly short schedule compared to other NASA missions: NASA awarded Katalyst the $30 million contract less than a year ago to build and launch the Link satellite, by no later than early July - and the launch was July 3rd. A more typical contract for a new satellite for a mission that has never been attempted before would have been "several" years.
“NASA should be willing to move quickly and take smart risks when the potential return is worth it, and that is exactly what we did with this mission,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “This is not the outcome we were working toward, but it does not change why this mission was worth attempting. The team moved with extraordinary speed to give Swift a chance to carry out more science while advancing capabilities America will need for satellite servicing in the future. We are going to learn everything we can from LINK’s rendezvous attempt and put those lessons to work on the missions that follow.”
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“We knew this was a high-risk, high-reward mission – a first-of-its kind attempt, developed on an unprecedented timeline driven by the Sun’s activity,” said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, director, Astrophysics Division, NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We were all hoping for more science from Swift. But we knew the takeaways from this mission would be worthwhile either way, and we have gained so much through the series of accomplishments up to this point.”
Swift itself is a remarkable mission, launched on a planned two year mission to observe gamma ray bursts, some of the most energetic explosions in the universe. The two year mission launched in 2004. Nobody wants to see Swift burn up and get destroyed on reentry, but I think getting 22 years of results out of a two year mission is a pretty good return on investment. NASA has used this opportunity to advance U.S. spacecraft servicing technology,
NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, shown in this artist’s concept, has orbited Earth for more than 20 years, studying the ever-changing universe.
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab
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