NASA launches first robotic mission to catch its falling Swift space telescope
NASA's Swift gamma-ray observatory has been sinking about five miles a month after intense solar storms thickened the upper atmosphere. On July 3 a spacecraft called Link, built by Katalyst Space Technologies, launched on a Northrop Grumman Pegasus rocket to grab it with three ro
One of NASA's most valued space telescopes is falling toward Earth, and for the first time a robot has launched to catch it. The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, a gamma-ray telescope that has tracked cosmic explosions for over twenty years, began losing altitude faster than expected after intense solar activity since 2024 heated and expanded the upper atmosphere, adding drag that now pulls Swift down about five miles every month. On July 3, the Link servicing spacecraft launched aboard a Northrop Grumman Pegasus rocket, air-dropped over the Pacific. Link will use three robotic arms to lock onto a fitting on Swift, then fire ion thrusters to raise the orbit back toward six hundred kilometers, extending the mission about a decade. The thirty million dollar effort also tests whether aging satellites can be saved instead of abandoned. The capture attempt comes in about a month.