NASA Launches Robot to Rescue Falling Swift Telescope

Swift, a gamma-ray observatory launched in 2004, has been sinking faster and faster because of unusually intense solar activity, which heats and expands Earth's upper atmosphere and drags satellites downward. The telescope currently orbits about 224 miles (360 kilometers) up but must stay above 185 miles (300 kilometers) for the rescue to work — a threshold it is expected to cross in October. To slow the descent, NASA switched off all of Swift's scientific instruments, halting observations in February. Never designed to be repaired or retrieved, the spacecraft presents an unprecedented challenge. Only China has attempted anything similar, successfully pushing a satellite into a higher "graveyard" orbit four years ago; Katalyst says Link will be the first American robot to perform such a feat.

If the mission works, Link will spend about a month catching up to Swift and two more raising its orbit to 373 miles (600 kilometers). Nicky Fox, NASA's science mission chief, argued the effort is worthwhile, noting the agency lacks the budget to build a replacement and would lose valuable capability if the telescope were allowed to burn up. Nicknamed "NASA's first responder," Swift can pivot quickly to capture sudden events such as exploding stars and gamma-ray bursts, and could grow even busier alongside the Webb and upcoming Roman telescopes. Katalyst hopes the mission will launch a wider business servicing, refueling, and repositioning satellites in space. The company's next-generation robot may even rescue the larger Hubble Space Telescope, which is also losing altitude, as soon as 2028.