A unique NASA satellite is falling out of orbit—this team is trying to rescue it
摘要
美国宇航局（NASA）运行21年的尼尔·盖尔斯·斯威夫特天文台因轨道衰减已停摆一个多月。与哈勃等旗舰任务不同，NASA不计划派遣宇航员或投入巨额资金进行救援。去年九月，NASA与Katalyst空间技术公司签订了一份价值3000万美元的合同，旨在通过发射商业卫星来稳定其轨道、延长任务寿命。这有望成为首次商业航天器在轨救援任务。
BROOMFIELD, Colorado—One of NASA's oldest astronomy missions, the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, has been out of action for more than a month as scientists await the arrival of a pioneering robotic rescue mission.
The 21-year-old spacecraft is falling out of orbit, and NASA officials believe it's worth saving—for the right price. Swift is not a flagship astronomy mission like Hubble or Webb, so there's no talk of sending astronauts or spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a rescue expedition. Hubble was upgraded by five space shuttle missions, and billionaire and commercial astronaut Jared Isaacman—now NASA's administrator—proposed a privately funded mission to service Hubble in 2022, but the agency rejected the idea.
Swift may be a more suitable target for a first-of-a-kind commercial rescue mission. It has cost roughly $500 million (adjusted for inflation) to build, launch, and operate, but it is significantly less expensive than Hubble, so the consequences of a botched rescue would be far less severe. Last September, NASA awarded a company named Katalyst Space Technologies a $30 million contract to rapidly build and launch a commercial satellite to stabilize Swift's orbit and extend its mission.
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