Can you rescue a falling satellite in space? NASA is about to find out.
In a mission that sounds straight out of science fiction, a robotic spacecraft has been launched.
It will catch the aging Swift Observatory before it slips back toward Earth.
Swift has spent more than two decades studying powerful cosmic explosions known as gamma-ray bursts.
But increased solar activity has expanded Earth’s atmosphere, creating drag that has steadily pulled the telescope into a lower orbit.
The rescue craft, called LINK, will attempt something never done before.
Robot Attempts Historic Rescue
Equipped with three robotic arms, it will carefully approach the moving telescope, latch onto it, and slowly push it back into a safer orbit.
“It’s high risk,” said space scientist Dr. Simeon Barber.
He added that the mission is worth attempting because Swift remains one of the world’s most valuable tools for studying extreme events in the universe.
Engineers from Katalyst Space Technologies built the rescue robot in just eight months.
If the delicate docking succeeds, LINK will spend several months gently lifting Swift from about 360 km back toward its original 600 km orbit.
It’s a bold test of space servicing technology. And if this cosmic rescue works, today’s mission could become tomorrow’s blueprint.
It could become tomorrow’s blueprint for saving legendary spacecraft like the Hubble Space Telescope.
