NASA LAUNCHES ROBOTIC RESCUE MISSION TO SAVE SWIFT SPACE TELESCOPE

NASA is preparing to launch a robotic spacecraft to prevent the Swift Observatory from falling back to Earth. The $30 million salvage operation begins this week, with liftoff scheduled as soon as Tuesday from an atoll in the Marshall Islands aboard a Pegasus rocket. Katalyst Space Technologies, a private startup hired by NASA, built the three-armed spacecraft named Lift to execute the rescue. The Swift Observatory has been descending at an accelerating rate owing to intense solar activity since its launch in 2004.

Lift will take approximately one month to reach and capture Swift, then spend a further two months raising its orbit from 224 miles to 373 miles altitude. The 1.6-ton gamma-ray observatory must remain above 185 miles to be salvageable; according to current estimates, it will reach the critical point of no return in October. Lift measures roughly the size of a small kitchen refrigerator and features a 40-foot solar wingspan alongside three articulated arms, each equipped with two finger-like gripping mechanisms. China successfully executed a comparable satellite-boosting mission four years ago, though this represents the first such American robotic operation, according to Katalyst Space Technologies Chief Executive Ghonhee Lee.

The Hubble Space Telescope also faces the same orbital decay threat from solar activity, and NASA has indicated it could become a candidate for similar rescue operations. Katalyst Space Technologies is developing a next-generation robotic spacecraft capable of servicing Hubble within the next two years. Lee stated that the Swift mission demonstrates a new capability available to NASA for maintaining its aging observatory infrastructure.