Nasa turns to robotic spacecraft to save telescope from falling back to Earth

Nasa is racing to save an ageing telescope from falling back to Earth with a daring rescue mission.

The US$30 million salvage operation gets under way as soon as this week with the planned launch of a robotic lifesaver.

Nasa hired start-up Katalyst Space Technologies to boost the Swift Observatory to a higher orbit where it can continue hunting for some of the universe’s biggest explosions. A three-armed spacecraft built by Katalyst will chase after Swift once it takes off from an atoll in the Pacific’s Marshall Islands aboard a plane-launched Pegasus rocket. Lift-off could occur as early as Tuesday.

Scanning the cosmos since its launch in 2004, Swift has been sinking faster and faster because of recent intense solar activity. It needs to get to a higher, more stable orbit as soon as possible to survive.

Nasa’s Hubble Space Telescope – also at risk – could be next.

Like Swift, Hubble is losing altitude as the sun erupts with one flare after another. Katalyst Space CEO Ghonhee Lee said his company’s next-generation robot, still in development, could save the day for the much bigger Hubble in a couple years.