NASA to bump telescope back into space to avoid it falling to Earth

NASA is preparing a daring $30 million rescue mission to save its aging Swift Observatory from re-entering Earth's atmosphere. The operation, expected to commence as soon as this week, involves launching a specialized robotic spacecraft to push the observatory into a higher, more stable orbit.

The contract to perform this salvage operation has been awarded to Katalyst Space Technologies, a startup company. Their mission is to use a three-armed spacecraft, named Link, to rendezvous with the Swift Observatory and propel it to an altitude of 600 kilometers from its current 360 kilometers. The process of catching Swift is estimated to take about a month, with the orbit-raising taking an additional couple of months.

The Swift Observatory, launched in 2004, has been gradually descending due to intense solar activity. To continue its mission of detecting rapid bursts of light in the universe, it must reach a higher orbit before it passes a point of no return in October. This rescue mission is crucial for extending the observatory's operational life.

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This is the first American space robot to go up and do anything like this.

This initiative marks a significant development in space asset management, as it's the first time an American space robot will undertake such a task. Katalyst Space CEO Ghonhee Lee highlighted that this mission serves as a "new play in the playbook" for servicing aging space observatories. He suggested that similar technology could potentially be used in the future to assist other valuable assets, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, which is also facing altitude loss due to solar flares.

Only China has previously attempted a similar mission, successfully boosting a satellite into a higher orbit four years ago. Katalyst's Link spacecraft, roughly the size of a small refrigerator with a 12-meter solar wingspan, is equipped with three arms, each featuring two grippers resembling Lego mini-figure hands, designed for precise maneuvering and docking in space.

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NASA has all these big senior observatories … all of them can benefit from a service like this. So, what we're proving with this mission is this is a new play in the playbook that's available.