NASA has a clear interest in saving the Swift mission. The $500 million observatory’s primary mission is detecting gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful explosions in the known Universe. Despite its age, astrophysicists still rely on Swift’s multi-wavelength instruments to identify and locate gamma-ray bursts for follow-up observations by other observatories.
But part of the reason for launching a rescue mission to Swift is simply to see if it can be done. NASA launched Space Shuttles to service and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope, but those missions required hands-on work from spacewalking astronauts. A safer, cheaper robotic servicing platform would have a broader set of applications.
“This is a historic mission,” said Robert Lamontagne, vice president of strategic partnerships at Katalyst. “Some would call it the first of its kind, a robotic spacecraft that can go and capture an unprepared satellite. It’s a commercial mission, first and foremost. It’s doing an operational, real-world objective. It’s not just a demonstration. We’re doing this as a service.
“At Katalyst, we are very passionate about the idea of dynamic space operations,” Lamontagne said. “What I mean by that is, for years and years, folks have thought about space as something where you build a satellite, you launch a satellite, it does its mission, and at the end of the mission, it gets disposed of, either it re-enters, or it goes to a graveyard orbit. That’s a throwaway type of model.
“We think the spacecraft operator should no longer be constrained by the silly decisions that we made before launch,” he said. “You should be able to refuel, reposition, repurpose, repair, and even upgrade satellites, even if they were never prepared for it, and that’s where Katalyst is trying to change everyone’s mindset.”
