{"id":193775,"date":"2026-07-15T21:37:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T03:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=193775"},"modified":"2026-07-15T21:37:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T03:07:18","slug":"cosmic-rescue-nasa-scrambles-to-save-a-falling-space-telescope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=193775","title":{"rendered":"Cosmic Rescue: NASA scrambles to save a falling space telescope"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div style=\"color:#000\" data-test-id=\"text\">To save the telescope, standard engineering luxuries were bypassed. NASA gave Katalyst total design flexibility with only two core mandates: boost the telescope&#8217;s orbit, and do not crash into or damage it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The risk of us losing Swift \u2014 if we hadn\u2019t done this \u2014 was 100 per cent,&#8221; said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, NASA\u2019s astrophysics division director. &#8220;From a financial and management standpoint, this made sense.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Katalyst\u2019s CEO, Ghonhee Lee, founded the company with a vision of deploying space robots to repair and refuel satellites. The company was also fortunate to secure a discounted, leftover rocket; standard launch vehicles like SpaceX&#8217;s Falcon 9 would have consumed the mission&#8217;s entire $30 million budget.<\/p>\n<p>Swift is crucial for studying gamma-ray bursts, the highest-energy light in the cosmos. These brief, violent flashes tell stories about moments of extreme cosmic violence, like the explosive deaths of massive stars and collisions between ultradense neutron stars.<\/p>\n<p>When another telescope spots a burst, Swift lives up to its name by quickly swivelling to measure the high-energy light as it fades away. NASA originally planned for a two-year mission, leaving no contingency plans for a future orbital boost a couple of decades later.<\/p>\n<p>Swift\u2019s fall was heavily accelerated by the sun&#8217;s 11-year sunspot cycle. Peak solar activity in late 2024 shot out intense solar flares that heated Earth&#8217;s atmosphere and puffed it outward, dramatically increasing orbital drag. Faced with losing the telescope this year, NASA scrambled to find private companies with ready-to-deploy technologies.<\/p>\n<p>To buy time, Swift stopped regular observations this year to perform manoeuvres to slow its fall. The rescue operation will now unfold in distinct phases. Controllers will spend two weeks verifying Link&#8217;s systems, followed by a month and a half to approach and grab Swift. Finally, Link will gradually propel the telescope 100 miles higher over two months, enough of a boost to keep Swift operational for another decade.<\/p>\n<p>The New York Times<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dtnext.in\/edit\/cosmic-rescue-nasa-scrambles-to-save-a-falling-space-telescope\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To save the telescope, standard engineering luxuries were bypassed. NASA gave Katalyst total design flexibility with only two core mandates: boost the telescope&#8217;s orbit, and do not crash into or damage it. &#8220;The risk of us losing Swift \u2014 if we hadn\u2019t done this \u2014 was 100 per cent,&#8221; said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, NASA\u2019s astrophysics division&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":193776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-193775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/dt-next2F2026-07-162Fe8f7aqs82Fnasa.webp","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":193338,"url":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=193338","url_meta":{"origin":193775,"position":0},"title":"Sun sets on Vulcan Centaur as NASA moves SunRISE to SpaceX Falcon Heavy","author":"Ajay Kumar Verma","date":"July 14, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"SCIENCE Solar observatory awaits a new launch date after its original ride hit booster trouble NASA has performed a rocket switcheroo and will launch its SunRISE mission on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy instead of the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan Centaur on which it was originally booked to fly. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;National News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"National News","link":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5229516.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5229516.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5229516.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5229516.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5229516.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":197336,"url":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=197336","url_meta":{"origin":193775,"position":1},"title":"PRAXIS: a NASA mission to graze planet rings","author":"Ajay Kumar Verma","date":"July 26, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"In March 2026, the Webb and Hubble space telescopes teamed up to observe Saturn and acquire a richer understanding of its atmosphere. This image shows Webb\u2019s view. The rings are bright because they are made of water ice, which is very reflective. | Photo Credit: Space Telescope Science Institute\/NASA PRAXIS\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;National News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"National News","link":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Big_shot_shape1GBKFRFAPJ.4.jpg.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Big_shot_shape1GBKFRFAPJ.4.jpg.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Big_shot_shape1GBKFRFAPJ.4.jpg.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Big_shot_shape1GBKFRFAPJ.4.jpg.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Big_shot_shape1GBKFRFAPJ.4.jpg.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":198316,"url":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=198316","url_meta":{"origin":193775,"position":2},"title":"Alaknanda: The Spiral Galaxy That Rewrites the Early Universe","author":"Ajay Kumar Verma","date":"July 28, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The spiral galaxy seen in the top right corner of the image is named Alaknanda, after a river in the Himalayas. It looks a lot like our familiar Milky Way; it has two clear, symmetric arms curling out from a bright central region. It was created 1.5 billion years after\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;National News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"National News","link":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_3824.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_3824.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_3824.webp?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_3824.webp?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_3824.webp?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":197684,"url":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=197684","url_meta":{"origin":193775,"position":3},"title":"NASA Astronaut Chris Williams Returns to Earth After Successful Space Mission &#8211; chshyd.in","author":"Ajay Kumar Verma","date":"July 27, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"NASA Astronaut Chris Williams Returns to Earth After Successful Space Mission\u00a0\u00a0chshyd.inNASA Astronaut Chris Williams, Crewmates Return from Space Station\u00a0\u00a0NASA (.gov)U.S.-Russian space crew lands safely in Kazakhstan after an 8-month stint on the ISS\u00a0\u00a0The HinduThe Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft with two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut has undocked from the ISS,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;National News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"National News","link":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/NASA-Astronaut-Chris-Williams-Returns-to-Earth.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/NASA-Astronaut-Chris-Williams-Returns-to-Earth.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/NASA-Astronaut-Chris-Williams-Returns-to-Earth.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/NASA-Astronaut-Chris-Williams-Returns-to-Earth.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/NASA-Astronaut-Chris-Williams-Returns-to-Earth.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":198806,"url":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=198806","url_meta":{"origin":193775,"position":4},"title":"Anil Menon Preps For First Spacewalk At Space Station","author":"Ajay Kumar Verma","date":"July 30, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"India-West News Desk HOUSTON, TX\u00a0\u2013\u00a0NASA astronaut Anil Menon is gearing up for the first of three spacewalks planned at the International Space Station in August, as Expedition 75 crew members spent July 28 preparing spacesuits, conducting medical research and carrying out routine station operations. Menon will join Expedition 75 commander\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;National News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"National News","link":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/people-image.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/people-image.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/people-image.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/people-image.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/people-image.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":197352,"url":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=197352","url_meta":{"origin":193775,"position":5},"title":"U.S.-Russian space crew lands safely in Kazakhstan after an 8-month stint on the ISS","author":"Ajay Kumar Verma","date":"July 26, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Russian Soyuz MS-28 space capsule with NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev on board descends near Kazakh town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Sunday (July 26, 2026). | Photo Credit: AP A U.S.-Russian space crew landed safely in the steppes of Kazakhstan on Sunday (July\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;National News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"National News","link":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Kazakhstan_Russia_Space_Station_13178.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Kazakhstan_Russia_Space_Station_13178.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Kazakhstan_Russia_Space_Station_13178.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Kazakhstan_Russia_Space_Station_13178.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Kazakhstan_Russia_Space_Station_13178.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgnRh4-Opp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=193775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/193776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=193775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=193775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=193775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}