NASA is racing to save its aging Swift Observatory from falling out of orbit by sending up a robotic spacecraft designed to boost it to a safer altitude and extend its mission in space. The $30 million rescue effort could begin as early as this week with the launch of a Pegasus rocket carrying a small, airplane-deployed booster from the Marshall Islands, followed by a rendezvous with a newly built robotic craft developed by Katalyst Space Technologies.
Swift, which has been operating since 2004 to detect powerful cosmic events like gamma-ray bursts, is losing altitude due to increased solar activity. Without intervention, it is expected to drop below a critical threshold in the coming months, where reentry would become unavoidable.
The rescue vehicle, named Link, is a compact autonomous spacecraft equipped with three robotic arms designed to grab and reposition satellites. After launch, it will spend about a month catching up to Swift, then gradually raise its orbit over several more weeks from roughly 224 miles to about 373 miles above Earth.
NASA has already paused Swift’s scientific operations to slow its descent, but officials say the telescope still risks being lost if no action is taken. If successful, the mission could restore operations by late summer and preserve a spacecraft widely viewed as essential for tracking fast, unpredictable cosmic events.
The project is also being watched as a test case for a broader future in orbital servicing, where robotic spacecraft could repair, refuel, and extend the life of satellites that were never originally designed for maintenance. NASA officials say the same technology could eventually be used to boost the aging Hubble Space Telescope as well.
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