A Katalyst Space robot launched to grab onto a space telescope and raise it to a higher orbit is now tumbling out of control, NASA and the company said today.
The mission is the first time the space agency has hired a private company to lift one of its observatories to a higher orbit, allowing the observatory to continue operations beyond its expected lifespan.
The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory was launched in 2004, with the ability to swiftly point at ephemeral space events like gamma ray bursts. The spacecraft has been pulled back toward Earth, and needs to be pushed back up to a higher orbit to continue doing its job.
The LINK spacecraft was launched into space on July 3 onboard a Northrop Grumman Pegasus rocket. Over the past several weeks, flight controllers have worked to commission the spacecraft, activating its various systems before it heads off to rendezvous with Swift.
However, the spacecraft suffered issues controlling itself and began spinning over the weekend, making communications difficult as its antenna flips away from the planet. According to NASA, two of the three reaction wheels that control the spacecraft’s alignment have failed, and there are problems with one of the spacecraft’s thruster systems.
Flight controllers are working to recover the spacecraft using another set of thrusters on the spacecraft to slow the spin, and said in a statement that “we have already begun this series of burns and are seeing the intended effect.”
Katalyst’s Kieran Wilson, the chief engineer for the mission, told reporters ahead of the mission that the spacecraft had been built incredibly quickly because of the urgent need to raise Swift in the next few months.“All this is challenging and risky,” he said at the time. “There’re a lot of spacecraft that have had far longer development cycles with far more funding behind them that have failed for mundane reasons.”
Katalyst raised a $12 million round in June to help support this mission, backed by investors Fortitude Ventures and Geodesic Capital. The company has also won funding from the US military, which is interested in dynamic vehicle that can service satellites or surveil rival spacecraft.
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.
October 13 – 15 San Francisco Scale faster. Grow your portfolio. Gain practical expertise. No matter your goal, Disrupt can empower you.Save up to $330 today!
Most Popular Librarians are hosting viral ‘Avoiding AI’ workshops for people who are fed up with Big Tech Amanda Silberling
SpaceX launches new V3 Starlink satellites but suffers another booster failure Sean O'Kane
Prentis, new AI lab co-founded by Reid Hoffman, Mark Pincus in talks to raise $100M Marina Temkin
US accuses American of allegedly wiping his phone using a ‘duress’ password during border search Zack Whittaker
Anduril reportedly in talks to raise funding at $100B valuation, more than 3x last year’s mark Ram Iyer
Tesla’s robotaxis are moving in reverse Sean O'Kane
How OpenAI’s human mistake led to the AI-powered hack on Hugging Face Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai
---
**İlgili Kaynaklar:**
SEO ve GEO eğitim platformu ihtiyaçlarınız için [GEO eğitim](https://geoakademi.com) doğru adres.
