NASA has made progress with plans to boost the rapidly decaying orbit of the Swift observatory while calling an abrupt halt to an attempt to reboost the International Space Station (ISS) using SpaceX’s Dragon.
Following a successful demonstration on September 3, NASA and SpaceX were trying for a 19-minute, 22-second burn using the Draco thrusters located in the trunk of SpaceX’s CRS-33 Dragon cargo spacecraft. However, at three minutes and 45 seconds, controllers saw something they didn’t like and commanded a manual abort.
The problem was that a planned swap of the Draco thruster fuel tanks did not occur, and controllers at SpaceX and NASA’s Johnson Space Center opted to halt the proceedings to conserve propellant.
The retirement of the Space Shuttles and the end of the European Space Agency’s ATV program have left NASA with fewer options for boosting the ISS’s orbit, which decays naturally over time. Roscosmos’s Progress spacecraft have raised the outpost’s orbit for years, and Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus vehicle is capable of limited reboosts.
Using a reboost kit carried in the trunk of a Dragon freighter gives NASA extra options for maintaining the lab’s altitude. Assuming it works. The first test burn lasted five minutes and three seconds. Managers had intended to perform longer burns, but the latest firing fell some way short of what was desired. The team hopes to try again today.
NASA awards Swift orbit boost attempt
NASA has a vested interest in keeping things in orbit. Earlier this year, the agency began seeking ways of raising the orbit of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and, with impressive speed, awarded Katalyst Space Technologies of Flagstaff, Arizona, a contract to send its robotic servicing spacecraft to raise the observatory to a higher orbit, potentially extending its lifetime.
The award is worth $30 million and will enable Katalyst to proceed with the rescue mission.
An increase in the Sun’s activity has resulted in Swift experiencing more atmospheric drag than expected. “Given how quickly Swift’s orbit is decaying, we are in a race against the clock,” said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, acting director of NASA’s Astrophysics Division.
There is a 50 percent chance of Swift making an uncontrolled reentry by mid-2026, rising to 90 percent by the end of the year. The Katalyst vehicle must therefore be ready to launch within months, rather than the years that such a mission would usually need.
Complicating matters is that Swift was never intended to be serviced in space, meaning grappling the vehicle without damaging it will require careful thought and a delicate touch. According to Katalyst, its servicer “will rely on a custom-built robotic capture mechanism that will attach to a feature on the satellite’s main structure – without damaging sensitive instruments.”
Ghonhee Lee, CEO of Katalyst, said: “We’re demonstrating that when the need arises, we can go from identifying the problem to executing a robotic docking mission in less than a year.”
Whether Swift will survive whatever budget is ultimately decided for NASA is another matter altogether. ®
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