This space telescope is falling. A robotic spacecraft may save it
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This space telescope is falling. A robotic spacecraft may save it
NASA to launch rescue mission July 2 to save Swift space telescope from burning up in Earth's atmosp…
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A robotic tugboat is launching to pull a decades-old space telescope to safety.
Early on July 2, a private spacecraft called LINK will launch to rescue NASA’s Swift space telescope from a fiery death in Earth’s atmosphere. The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory launched in 2004 to study gamma-ray bursts and other cosmic events. It has been enormously successful and is still making new discoveries.
But all satellites eventually succumb to gravity, and most burn up in Earth’s atmosphere before they reach the ground. In early 2025, NASA scientists realized Swift was losing altitude faster than expected: Strong solar activity starting in 2024 had given Earth’s atmosphere an energy boost, expanding it slightly and putting more drag on objects in low orbits. The extra drag meant Swift would reenter and break up sometime in mid-2026 if nothing was done.
Scientists decided to mount a robotic rescue mission, something never done before. The idea was to launch a simple spacecraft that could grab hold of Swift with robotic arms and pull it into a higher orbit. In September 2025, NASA selected private U.S.
spaceflight company Katalyst to carry out the mission, giving it just nine months to get ready. A rocket launched LINK from the Marshall Islands at 5:09 a.m. EDT on July 2, after a two-day weather delay.
Operators will spend several weeks making sure LINK is working. Then the spacecraft will spend about a month slowly approaching Swift and sending images to Earth, where mission team members will pick the best places to grab the descending spacecraft. Once LINK has Swift in its clutches, it will fire gentle thrusters to slowly raise the orbit over a few months, aiming for Swift’s original altitude of about 600 kilometers.
If successful, similar techniques could boost other space telescopes, including the Hubble Space Telescope. Swift occupies a unique niche in NASA’s pantheon of telescopes, says principal investigator Brad Cenko, an astrophysicist at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. True to its name, it can swivel quickly to follow up on sudden cosmic explosions almost anywhere in the sky within minutes.
Hubble, by contrast, takes at least a day to repoint. “It really is NASA’s ‘first responder,’” Cenko said in an email. Since December, Swift’s operations team has been changing its observing strategy to reduce drag and slow its descent.
Currently, it’s not taking science data at all. Once in its new orbit, the observatory will need a reboot. Return to science could take another month or more, but when it does, Swift could have another decade of observations ahead.
How 🌌 Space.com Covers It
An air-launched Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket is scheduled to fly for the very last time on Thursday morning (July 2), sending a private spacecraft on a rescue mission to save one of NASA's most iconic space telescopes from falling back to Earth. The Swift Boost mission will send the LINK satellite, built by Arizona-based Katalyst Space Technologies, to grapple NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and tow it to a stable orbit, saving it from impending destruction as its trajectory dips farther into the atmosphere. LINK, aboard Pegasus, will take off from Bucholz Army Airfield at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, secured to Northrop Grumman's L-1011 Stargazer jet.
Think About This
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- Ask your child: “What do you think scientists discovered about space telescope? What part surprised you most?”
- Explore together: Search for “space telescope” on NASA Kids’ Club, DK Find Out, or National Geographic Kids for more kid-friendly facts.
- Critical thinking: Science findings can change as more research is done. Ask: “How would scientists test this? What would prove them wrong?”
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