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NASA's Swift Observatory Faces Fiery Demise After Failed Rescue
· Confirmed
In Short: NASA's Swift Observatory, launched in 2004, is set to end its mission with a fiery demise after a failed rescue attempt.
NASA's Swift Observatory, launched in 2004, is set to end its mission with a fiery demise after a failed rescue attempt. The spacecraft, which has been indispensable for over two decades, is now falling uncontrollably towards Earth's atmosphere, with a Space Force prediction that it will crash on or around Friday.
The Swift Observatory was designed to reveal the secrets of gamma-ray bursts and has since observed more than 2,000 such bursts and over 1,400 supernova explosions, contributing to approximately 7,000 scientific papers. It resumed observations even after the rescue attempt was called off, discovering even more gamma-ray bursts and other ultrahigh-energy events.
The dramatic situation unfolded roughly 340 kilometers above Earth, where atmospheric drag and a recent bout of unusually strong solar activity have been dragging Swift down faster than usual. NASA had predicted that Swift would remain above 185 miles (300 kilometers) until October, but the rescue attempt was unsuccessful.
A spacecraft commissioned by NASA to loft Swift out of danger launched in early July, but by late August, technical issues made a boost attempt impossible. The company’s three-armed robot named Link ran into trouble after launching in July and got no closer than 7 miles to 9 miles (12 kilometers to 15 kilometers) to the telescope.
Swift’s chief scientist, Brad Cenko, warned that a handful of pieces made of denser-than-lead tungsten and some mirror parts could survive reentry. Most of the 1 ½-ton telescope is expected to burn up in the atmosphere, with any surviving wreckage likely to plunge into the ocean.
The telescope, which was officially renamed the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory in 2018 after its first principal investigator, Neil Gehrels, who died a year earlier, gathered its last scientific data on October 20. Gehrels was born in Wisconsin in 1952 to two recent emigrants from the Netherlands.
Astrophysicist Lynn Cominsky of Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, Calif., noted that Swift started discovering things almost immediately after launch. The telescope observed between five and 10 'targets of opportunity' most days, tallying hundreds or even thousands in a year.
John Nousek, an astronomer who led the control team at Pennsylvania State University, said, 'We’ve known this day would come since before Swift was launched. At least in low-Earth orbit, what goes up must come down. And that end is catastrophic.'
What this adds
The mission's data has contributed to about 7,000 published scientific papers to date, according to NASA officials. Swift costs roughly a quarter-billion dollars to build and launch in 2004; the rescue contract is about $30 million.
Background
NASA's Swift Observatory, launched in 2004, is set to end its mission with a fiery demise after a failed rescue attempt.
NASA's Swift Observatory, launched in 2004, is set to end its mission with a fiery demise after a failed rescue attempt.
What's confirmed
- In its later years, Swift observed between five and 10 “targets of opportunity” most days, tallying hundreds or even thousands in a year.
- WASHINGTON — NASA has shut down an astronomy spacecraft in a decaying orbit after a failed attempt to reboost it with a commercial spacecraft.
- But a handful of pieces made of denser-than-lead tungsten and some mirror parts could survive reentry, according to NASA's Brad Cenko, the mission’s chief scientist.
- “Our fervent hope is that the lessons learned by the successes of Swift can be applied to new generations of space missions to accelerate our discoveries about the universe,” Nousek said in an email.
- “We’ve known this day would come since before Swift was launched. At least in low-Earth orbit, what goes up must come down. And that end is catastrophic,” said Pennsylvania State University’s John Nousek, an astronomer who led the control team.
- Swift resumed observations once the rescue attempt was called off, discovering even more gamma ray bursts and other ultrahigh-energy events.
- NASA hired Katalyst Space a year ago to mount a rush rescue.
- The Space Force is tracking the telescope’s dwindling path.
- Intense solar activity over the past few years dragged Swift down faster than usual.
- Space Force predicts the Swift Observatory will come crashing down on or around Friday.
- Its cosmic cremation has the Swift team mourning yet full of gratitude for the observations the telescope made during its 22 years in orbit.
- NASA predictions had shown the shift to low-drag operations had extended Swift’s time above 185 miles (300 kilometers) until October.
What's still developing
- As Swift’s tenure unfolded, astronomers started asking to borrow the nimble observatory to study a whole range of objects changing on the sky.
- NASA and Katalyst announced Aug. 19 that LINK would not proceed with capturing and boosting Swift.
- The mission's data has contributed to about 7,000 published scientific papers to date, according to NASA officials.
- Katalyst sought to mount a similar mission to the 36-year-old observatory, and the Swift operation was meant to serve as a preview of that.
- Satellite servicing is a growing field, with government agencies and commercial companies around the world practicing high-flying maneuvers. (Tech billionaires are interested, too: Before he was appointed to the top job at NASA, administrator Jared Isaacman offered to mount a SpaceX mission to raise Hubble’s orbit.) “The technology to enable servicing is on a very good path,” says David Barnhart, an astronautical engineer at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, citing advancements in rendezvous sensors, propulsion systems and, the all-important element, robotic arms.
- Use of the third instrument, the Burst Alert Telescope, was halted in April to reduce power consumption so Swift’s solar panels could be positioned to further reduce drag.
- NASA announced on October 23 that Swift had ended science operations after its orbit dropped too low for the spacecraft to reliably point its telescopes at astronomical targets.
- While intact fragments occasionally survive intense thermal loads, the overwhelming majority of the 1 ½-ton platform will simply burn into harmless ash across the upper atmosphere. 💬 Orbital mechanics give aging spacecraft very little margin for error once rescue attempts fail. ✨ Tracking teams will stay locked onto the Swift Observatory through its final orbital revolutions as it marks the end of its mission. 📱 Drop your thoughts in the comments below : Are you tracking this week’s satellite reentry, or did the news take you by surprise?