A robotic tugboat is launching to drag a decades-old area telescope to security. Early on July 2, a non-public spacecraft referred to as LINK will launch to rescue NASA’s Swift area telescope from a fiery loss of life in Earth’s ambiance.
The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory launched in 2004 to review gamma-ray bursts and different cosmic occasions. It has been enormously profitable and continues to be making new discoveries.
However all satellites finally succumb to gravity, and most fritter away in Earth’s ambiance earlier than they attain the bottom. In early 2025, NASA scientists realized Swift was shedding altitude quicker than anticipated: Sturdy photo voltaic exercise beginning in 2024 had given Earth’s ambiance an power increase, increasing it barely and placing extra drag on objects in low orbits. The additional drag meant Swift would reenter and break up someday in mid-2026 if nothing was achieved.
Scientists determined to mount a robotic rescue mission, one thing by no means achieved earlier than. The concept was to launch a easy spacecraft that might seize maintain of Swift with robotic arms and pull it into the next orbit. In September 2025, NASA chosen non-public U.S. spaceflight firm Katalyst to hold out the mission, giving it simply 9 months to prepare.
A rocket will launch LINK from the Marshall Islands at 5:09 a.m. EDT on July 2, after a two-day climate delay.
Operators will spend a number of weeks ensuring LINK is working. Then the spacecraft will spend a few month slowly approaching Swift and sending photographs to Earth, the place mission staff members will decide the very best locations to seize the descending spacecraft. As soon as LINK has Swift in its clutches, it should hearth mild thrusters to slowly increase the orbit over a number of months, aiming for Swift’s authentic altitude of about 600 kilometers.
If profitable, related strategies might increase different area telescopes, together with the Hubble House Telescope.
Swift occupies a novel area of interest in NASA’s pantheon of telescopes, says principal investigator Brad Cenko, an astrophysicist at Goddard House Flight Middle in Greenbelt, Md. True to its identify, it could actually swivel shortly to comply with up on sudden cosmic explosions nearly wherever within the sky inside minutes. Hubble, in contrast, takes not less than a day to repoint. “It truly is NASA’s ‘first responder,’” Cenko stated in an e-mail.
Since December, Swift’s operations staff has been altering its observing technique to cut back drag and gradual its descent. Presently, it’s not taking science information in any respect. As soon as in its new orbit, the observatory will want a reboot. Return to science might take one other month or extra, however when it does, Swift might have one other decade of observations forward.
“Wanting ahead to our post-boost period, we’re actually enthusiastic about all of the discoveries Swift might unlock,” Cenko stated.
