It was an extremely ambitious mission with the best of intentions.
With the help of contractor Katalyst Space Technologies, NASA launched a specialized robotic spacecraft in July in a bid to give the agency’s aging Swift observatory a desperately-needed nudge.
But it didn’t take long for the unprecedented rescue attempt to spiral into a crisis — literally. The robot started spinning uncontrollably, causing it to tumble back towards the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere.
And now, Swift — which has been circling our planet for over two decades, providing scientists with invaluable observations of the cosmos — is about to succumb to a similar fate. The space telescope’s orbit is rapidly decaying, which will soon force NASA to wrap up the mission for good.
