NASA interested in Hubble reboost if costs can be reduced

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope Credit: NASA

WASHINGTON — As NASA prepares an attempt to reboost an astronomy spacecraft in a decaying orbit, the agency is open to doing something similar for the Hubble Space Telescope, provided its operating costs can be reduced.

NASA announced June 5 that the Link servicing spacecraft built by Katalyst Space had arrived at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The spacecraft had been at Katalyst’s Colorado facilities for final preparations after completing environmental tests at the Goddard Space Flight Center last month.

At Wallops, NASA will integrate Link with the Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket that will launch it. That launch is projected for later this month, although NASA has not announced a launch date.

NASA awarded Katalyst a $30 million contract last September to develop and launch Link. Once in orbit, it will rendezvous with and attach to NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, a gamma-ray observatory whose low Earth orbit is decaying because of atmospheric drag. Link will attempt to reboost Swift so that it can continue its observations.