NASA launches ambitious mission to save Swift telescope from falling back to Earth

NASA is preparing an unprecedented mission to rescue its aging Swift Observatory from re-entering Earth's atmosphere by boosting it into a higher orbit.

The $30 million operation could begin as early as this week with the launch of a robotic spacecraft developed by startup Katalyst Space Technologies.

Under a contract with NASA, Katalyst will attempt to raise the orbit of the Swift Observatory, which has been scanning the universe for powerful cosmic explosions since its launch in 2004. The telescope has been losing altitude at an increasing rate due to heightened solar activity and now needs to be moved to a more stable orbit to remain operational.

The mission will see Katalyst's autonomous spacecraft, named Link, launched aboard an air-launched Pegasus rocket from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific. Equipped with three robotic arms, Link is expected to take about a month to rendezvous with Swift and another two months to raise its orbit from about 360 kilometres to approximately 600 kilometres above Earth.

According to current estimates, Swift must remain above 300 kilometres in altitude for the rescue to succeed. The observatory is expected to reach that critical threshold in October.

The mission marks the first attempt by an American robotic spacecraft to capture and reposition an orbiting satellite. Only China has previously carried out a similar operation, successfully moving a satellite to a higher graveyard orbit in 2022.

NASA officials said the mission could pave the way for a new era of satellite servicing and repair in space.

Swift, valued at hundreds of millions of dollars, was never designed to be repaired or retrieved, making the mission particularly challenging. Company officials acknowledged there is no guarantee of success.

To buy additional time, NASA shut down all of Swift's scientific instruments in February to slow its orbital decay.

"If we let Swift re-enter, we would lose that telescope and a significant scientific capability," said NASA's science mission chief Nicky Fox, noting that the agency currently lacks the budget to build a replacement.

Known for its ability to rapidly respond to astronomical events such as gamma-ray bursts and exploding stars, Swift is expected to play an even more important role alongside discoveries made by the James Webb Space Telescope and the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope if the rescue succeeds.

The mission could also have implications for the future of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, which is similarly losing altitude due to increased solar activity. Katalyst believes its next-generation robotic spacecraft, now under development, could potentially extend Hubble's life within the next few years.

Calling Hubble "a national treasure," Fox said the iconic telescope remains deeply valued by both scientists and the public.