NASA Races to Save Falling Swift Observatory in Never-Before-Attempted Orbital Rescue

A 21-year-old telescope in a race against gravity

NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, a gamma-ray and X-ray telescope launched in November 2004, has been slowly losing altitude for months — falling faster than expected due to a surge in solar storm activity since late 2024 that has increased atmospheric drag on the spacecraft.floridatoday Without intervention, the satellite faces a 90% probability of uncontrolled reentry by the end of 2026.floridatoday Rather than let a still-functioning observatory burn up, NASA awarded Flagstaff, Arizona-based startup Katalyst Space Technologies a $30 million contract in September 2025 to build a rescue spacecraft — with less than a year to do it.floridatoday

The result is LINK, a custom robotic servicing spacecraft equipped with three robotic arms and a capture mechanism designed to latch onto a satellite that was never intended to be grabbed in space.spacenews "Over the last nine months, we have gone from a clean sheet to a spacecraft that is currently integrated on a rocket on an airplane ready to go," Katalyst principal investigator Kieran Wilson said at a June 17 briefing at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.spacenews

Launch set for June 27 from a Pacific atoll

LINK is scheduled to launch June 27 aboard a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket — the world's first privately developed orbital launch vehicle — from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.spacenews The Pegasus uses an air-launch strategy: Northrop Grumman's Stargazer L-1011 carrier aircraft will climb to roughly 40,000 feet over the ocean, release the rocket, and ignite its first-stage motor.floridatoday The Pegasus was mated to the Stargazer in mid-June and the aircraft is ferrying the stack from Wallops to the Pacific for launch.floridatoday

Once in orbit, LINK must reach Swift before the observatory's altitude drops below 300 kilometers — a threshold NASA currently estimates will be crossed in October.spacenews Because Swift lacks grappling fixtures and docking ports, LINK will close to within tens of meters while Swift's own attitude-control systems maneuver the spacecraft as a cooperative but unprepared partner, letting LINK inspect and select a grapple point.spacenews NASA astrophysics division director Shawn Domagal-Goldman said the mission's progress already constitutes a win. "I have to be honest, no one thought it was going to be possible," he said. "From a programmatic standpoint, I consider this a success already just from the fact that we're even going to try this."spacenews

What success would mean for satellite servicing

A successful capture and reboost would mark the first time a commercial robotic spacecraft has seized a government satellite that was never designed for in-space servicing — a capability NASA hopes will redefine how the agency maintains aging assets and avoids costly replacements.floridatoday Swift has spent more than two decades detecting gamma-ray bursts, the most energetic explosions in the universe, and remains scientifically productive.floridatoday If LINK boosts it to a safe altitude, the observatory could continue operating for years longer.spacenews