Swift Observatory telescope rescue in peril. What NASA’s mission

At the beginning of July, NASA and its commercial partners finally mounted a highly anticipated rescue mission to prevent the Swift Observatory from falling out of orbit and meeting its demise in our planet’s atmosphere. For most of the month, the operation appeared to be going off without much of a hitch, with the spacecraft meant to boost Swift’s altitude reaching orbit and establishing communications with Earth following a launch.

But by the end of July, things started to look grim.

That spacecraft tasked with reaching the Swift Observatory and clamping onto the telescope encountered some mechanical issues that have since sent it spinning uncontrollably in space. As of now, though, the U.S. space agency appears to remain cautiously optimistic that the mission could still be successful – as long as time doesn’t run out.

Here’s the latest on NASA’s mission to rescue the Swift Observatory.

What is the Swift Observatory?

Launched in 2004, NASA’s Swift Observatory has spent more than two decades orbiting Earth while studying a variety of cosmic phenomena. The satellite’s primary objective, though, is to observe gamma-ray bursts – events triggered by the catastrophic deaths of massive stars and considered to be the most powerful types of explosions in the universe.

The satellite is equipped with three multiwavelength telescopes that are able to collect data in visible, ultraviolet, X-ray and gamma-ray light.

Why is the Swift Observatory falling?

NASA to mount rescue mission for vital space telescope named Swift

NASA and commercial partners will launch a spacecraft in June to boost Swift Observatory’s orbit, staving off its destruction and extending its life.

The Swift Observatory is in a region of space known as low-Earth orbit nearer to the atmosphere, which is also where the International Space Station resides.

All spacecraft in that region can expect to fall to lower altitudes if they don’t have propulsion systems to counteract atmospheric drag and maintain their orbits. But the Swift Observatory has fallen faster than NASA has anticipated because of increased solar storms since fall 2024.

Mission teams on the ground have been keeping Swift at least 185 miles above Earth, where NASA’s mission to save it has the best chance of success.

Northrop Grumman launches spacecraft on rescue mission

On July 3, a rocket manufactured by Virginia-based aerospace company Northrop Grumman helped launch NASA’s highly anticipated rescue operation, which the agency has simply dubbed the “Swift Boost Mission.”

On board Northrop Grumman’s 55-foot-tall Pegasus XL was a spacecraft tasked with rendezvousing with the Swift Observatory and helping to boost it to a higher orbit.

Rather than get the rocket off the ground vertically on a launch pad, Northrop Grumman deploys an air-launch strategy to send the Pegasus to space.

Taking off from the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific Ocean, the company’s Stargazer L-1011 aircraft climbed to approximately 40,000 feet over the ocean, where it released the Pegasus rocket. After several seconds in free-fall, the Pegasus XL then ignited its first of its three-stage rocket motors, delivering LINK into orbit in about 10 minutes, according to Northrop Grumman.

Commercial spacecraft faces troubles on way to Swift

But troubles soon arose for the 5-foot-tall LINK spacecraft, developed by Arizona-based Katalyst Space with a $30 million contract from NASA to save the Swift Observatory.

Powered by 20 feet of solar panels, the 880-pound spacecraft managed to establish communications the same day as the launch and send a signal back to Earth confirming its power systems were working as planned.

Once LINK reached Earth orbit, Katalyst was then due to spend a few weeks evaluating the spacecraft’s propulsion, navigation and sensor systems. Once everything checked out, the spacecraft was next due to slowly approach and survey Swift before grabbing the observatory with its robotic arms and raising the orbit to nearly 370 miles high.

Progress continued as anticipated, according to Katalyst – at least until the end of July.

That’s when NASA reported that LINK “experienced issues” that caused the spacecraft to spin out of control. As a result, ground teams have been only receiving sporadic communications from the vehicle.

Katalyst works to slow LINK spacecraft’s spin

The Katalyst ground control team has since been working to stabilize the LINK spacecraft by using a series of electric propulsion thruster burns to reduce how fast it’s spinning, NASA said in a July 31 blog post.

Despite the setback, NASA said Katalyst has identified “potential paths forward for a boost,” with LINK potentially approaching approaching the Swift Observatory by the end of August.

Because Swift has no docking ports or grappling fixtures to grab onto, Katalyst built its LINK spacecraft with a custom robotic capture mechanism meant to attach to a feature on the satellite’s main structure. The process is meant to mitigate the chance of any sensitive instruments being damaged, Katalyst said in a previous press release.

Why does NASA want to rescue the space telescope?

NASA could allow the Swift Observatory to fall back to Earth later in 2026, where it would harmlessly burn up as it careened into the atmosphere.

Instead, the space agency wants to rescue the telescope and extend its mission for several more years – negating the need to spend more money to replace the observatory, NASA said in a press release.

A successful mission would mark the first time that a commercial robotic spacecraft captures a government satellite that – unlike other spacecraft like the Hubble Space Telescope – was never meant to be serviced in space. The unprecedented venture, NASA leaders say, would also test a new capability that could be used on other future missions.

Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@usatodayco.com