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NASA launches mission to retrieve Swift telescope

The goal will be to raise the telescope’s altitude so that it does not enter the atmosphere, disintegrate and have its fragments fall to Earth.

Pre-launch image of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory in 2004. File photo

Pre-launch image of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory in 2004. File photoAFP.

Alejandro Baños
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Alejandro Baños

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NASA launched the robotic mission that will attempt to recover the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, preventing it from disintegrating and its debris from falling to Earth.

Initially, the mission was scheduled to launch this Tuesday, but bad weather and some technical glitches forced a postponement.

This Friday, NASA began the process from an atoll in the Pacific Ocean, specifically in the Marshall Islands.

The main objective is to raise the telescope’s altitude—using magnetic thrust—so that it does not enter Earth’s atmosphere and crash into the planet in pieces.

For this mission, NASA is using a robotic spacecraft called LINK, which was launched into space aboard a Pegasus XL rocket, as reported in a press release.

The budget allocated for this mission was $30 million. The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory was launched on Nov. 20, 2004, with the goal of learning more about gamma-ray bursts.

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