A daring telescope-rescue mission is ready to launch later this month, and you’ll be taught all about it right now (June 17).
That mission might be carried out by Hyperlink, a robotic servicing spacecraft constructed and operated by the Arizona-based firm Katalyst Area Applied sciences. Hyperlink will meet up with NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory within the ultimate frontier, elevating the telescope’s orbit to offer it extra time to review the heavens.
NASA and Katalyst representatives will talk about the plan right now, throughout a press convention that begins at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT). You may hear stay via NASA. Area.com will stream the feed as effectively, if the area company makes it obtainable.
Individuals might be:
- Shawn Domagal-Goldman, division director, Astrophysics, NASA Headquarters in Washington
- Brad Cenko, principal investigator, Swift, NASA’s Goddard Area Flight Heart in Greenbelt, Maryland
- Kieran Wilson, principal investigator, LINK, Katalyst Area
- Robert Lamontagne, vice chairman, strategic partnerships, Katalyst Area
- Wes Collier, vice chairman, launch programs, Northrop Grumman
Swift doesn’t have a propulsion system to fight this downward pull, so it needs some help — which is where Katalyst comes in. Last fall, NASA announced it had tapped the company to raise Swift’s orbit.
It’s an unprecedented ask: No private spacecraft has ever linked up with a robotic U.S. government satellite. And time is of the essence; some models predicted the observatory could come back to Earth as soon as this summer.
Katalyst has acted fast, getting Link ready for a launch later this month from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific. (NASA has not yet announced a target date). Link will fly aboard a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket, an air-launched vehicle that will be carried aloft by a plane.
