NASA announced today the launch of an emergency mission to save the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory from an imminent uncontrolled reentry and destructive burnup in Earth's atmosphere.
According to the agency, the emergency action comes after intense recent solar activity caused the outer layers of Earth's atmosphere to expand, increasing drag and sharply lowering the telescope's orbit from 373 miles to less than 250 miles, threatening to end the career of one of science's most important observatories.
To carry out the operation, which carries a price tag of $30 million, NASA has enlisted startup Catalyst Space Technologies to develop a dedicated robotic rescue vehicle equipped with three robotic arms. The vehicle will track down the telescope, grasp its body with precision, and then boost it back into a higher, more stable orbit that will allow it to continue monitoring the universe's largest cosmic explosions for additional years.
The agency indicated that the plan calls for launching the robotic vehicle as early as this week. It will lift off aboard a Pegasus XL rocket carried aloft by an aircraft and released above a coral island in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has been scanning the universe since its launch in 2004, but the peak of the current solar cycle has accelerated its gradual orbital decay, making a boost to a safe orbit an urgent necessity to ensure its continued service and the pursuit of its unique scientific mission.