NASA launches robotic mission to save telescope falling to Earth | Space News

A three-armed space probe will enter space to rescue a NASA telescope that is in danger of returning to Earth.

NASA has launched a robotic mission to try to prevent one of its aging telescopes from burning up in space in a difficult mission expected to last several months.

Northrop Grumman launched the Link spacecraft – built by Katalyst Space Technologies in the United States – from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean on Friday.

A Pegasus rocket blasted from the belly of the modified spacecraft and put Link on course to reach and capture NASA’s Swift Observatory in about a month.

Earlier on Tuesday, the launch of the robot was postponed due to weather, then technical difficulties. The explosion occurred on Friday at 0836 GMT from the island of the Pacific Ocean.

The unprecedented $30m effort includes sending a robot to rescue the Swift space telescope that is falling to Earth. If successful, the mission could pave the way for giving other satellites a second life.

Launched in 2004, Swift is sinking faster than ever due to recent solar storms. The $250m telescope searches for gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful bursts in the universe.

When it lands on a path near Swift’s, the robot deploys its solar array and performs a series of checks.

It will find the Swift telescope in space, orbit it and dock it using three robotic arms – maneuvers expected to take several weeks.

Finally, it will attempt to maneuver the satellite about 300km (186 miles) above Earth, almost to its starting point. The operation is expected to last a month.

“This is the first of many observations,” Shawn Domagal-Goldman, director of NASA’s astrophysics division, told reporters on Tuesday. “I’m so glad we’re doing this.”