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6h ago

NASA Readies Commercial Rescue Mission to Lift Aging Swift Telescope

A $30 million mission using Katalyst’s LINK aims to grapple Swift to raise its orbit, extending the telescope’s service life.

The life of the Hubble Space Telescope may be extended with a rescue mission in 2028. (AP PHOTO)
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A Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket is affixed to the bottom of the company’s Stargazer, a modified L-1011 aircraft, which took off June 18 at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Inside the rocket is Katalyst Space’s LINK robotic servicing spacecraft, which will launch to boost the orbit of NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. Stargazer will fly to Kwajalein Atoll, part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific Ocean, to launch the mission.

Overview

  • LINK is packed inside a Pegasus XL and the Stargazer aircraft is staged at Kwajalein with a launch no earlier than Tuesday, June 30, to send the servicer into orbit for weeks of commissioning.
  • After commissioning, LINK will spend weeks to months closing with Swift, use three robotic arms to grab the satellite, and then slowly boost it over several months toward roughly 370 miles to add years of operation.
  • NASA moved Swift into a streamlined orientation and cut power use to reduce atmospheric drag after increased solar activity accelerated the observatory’s orbital decay and threatened a critical low‑altitude crossing this year.
  • The plan is high risk because Swift was not built for servicing and has no docking fixtures, creating chances of failed capture or hardware damage, but it costs roughly $30 million compared with far higher expense to replace the observatory.
  • If successful, the effort will be the first commercial capture and servicing of a government science satellite not designed for maintenance and could prove a rapid, lower‑cost model for extending future spacecraft lifetimes while preserving Swift’s unique rapid‑response science role.