> “Preliminary investigation shows that two of Link’s three reaction wheels currently are not operable, and there is some loss of functionality in its cold gas thruster system,” NASA said.
("Link" is the name of the rendezvous-and-boost-its-orbit satellite that is trying to save NASA's Swift observatory satellite.)
> Without a rescue, Swift is on track to reenter the atmosphere and burn up in the next few months.
Hopefully the steely-eyed rocket [wo]men at NASA and Katalyst - which build the Link satellite as part of this crash-priority mission - can save the day.
If not, does anyone see a possible rescue scenario? I'd guess that Rocket Labs, SpaceX, and a few others might love to be the cavalry coming over the hill here. But "next few months" leaves damned little time for planning, designing, and building, if they don't have suitable hardware sitting on the shelf.
bell-cot•34m ago
("Link" is the name of the rendezvous-and-boost-its-orbit satellite that is trying to save NASA's Swift observatory satellite.)
> Without a rescue, Swift is on track to reenter the atmosphere and burn up in the next few months.
Hopefully the steely-eyed rocket [wo]men at NASA and Katalyst - which build the Link satellite as part of this crash-priority mission - can save the day.
If not, does anyone see a possible rescue scenario? I'd guess that Rocket Labs, SpaceX, and a few others might love to be the cavalry coming over the hill here. But "next few months" leaves damned little time for planning, designing, and building, if they don't have suitable hardware sitting on the shelf.