A space telescope is falling out of orbit, and a rescue mission showed up just in time—but both are doomed.
The dramatic situation unfolded roughly 340 kilometers above Earth, where NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, is losing altitude, thanks to atmospheric drag and a recent bout of unusually strong solar activity. The telescope, which has studied some of the brightest phenomena in the universe for more than 20 years, was always going to meet a fiery end incinerating in the planet’s atmosphere. But last year, NASA decided it wasn’t ready to say goodbye to Swift. The agency hired private company Katalyst Space to whip up a spacecraft to…
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