Space & Astronomy

NASA to attempt unprecedented rescue of stricken orbital observatory

By T.K. Randall
June 29, 2026

Image Credit: (PD) NASA via Wikimedia Commons Launched back in 2004, the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer is an orbital observatory that has proven invaluable, yet is currently facing an existential crisis.

The problem is that it is currently stuck in a decaying orbit, meaning that it will eventually burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.

The clock is ticking, too, as the point of no return is thought to be as soon as October of this year.

Now, though, in a daring bid to rescue the observatory, NASA has hired Katalyst Space Technologies to develop a spacecraft that can grab onto Swift and boost it up into a stable orbit.The tech startup has come up with a multi-armed robotic spacecraft called Link that is designed to reach space by way of a rocket launched from an airplane.

Once it gets there, it will take around a month to catch up with Swift and latch onto it, after which it will take a further two months to boost its orbit up from 224 miles to the goal of 373 miles.

If it succeeds, it will have not only saved Swift but will have also paved the way for other future rescue missions.

The Hubble Space Telescope, for example, may also soon need a boost to avoid it succumbing to the same fate.

The rescue spacecraft for that, however, will need to be a lot bigger and a lot more powerful.

Source: Phys.org

Tags: Swift, NASA