{"id":2931,"date":"2026-06-28T13:33:54","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T13:33:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=2931"},"modified":"2026-06-28T13:33:54","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T13:33:54","slug":"nasa-races-to-save-swift-telescope-from-falling-back-to-earth-with-daring-rescue-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=2931","title":{"rendered":"NASA races to save Swift telescope from falling back to Earth with daring rescue mission"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.  <\/strong>| NASA is racing to save an aging telescope from falling back to Earth with a daring rescue mission.<\/p>\n<p>The $30 million salvage operation gets underway as soon as this week with the planned launch of a robotic lifesaver.<\/p>\n<p>NASA hired startup Katalyst Space Technologies to boost the Swift Observatory to a higher orbit where it can continue hunting for some of the universe\u2019s biggest explosions. A three-armed spacecraft built by Katalyst will chase after Swift once it takes off from an atoll in the Pacific\u2019s Marshall Islands aboard an airplane-launched Pegasus rocket. Liftoff could occur as early as Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Scanning the cosmos since its launch in 2004, Swift has been sinking faster and faster because of recent intense solar activity. It needs to get to a higher, more stable orbit as soon as possible to survive.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>NASA\u2019s Hubble Space Telescope \u2014 also at risk \u2014 could be next.<\/p>\n<p>Like Swift, Hubble is losing altitude as the sun erupts with one flare after another. Katalyst Space CEO Ghonhee Lee said his company\u2019s next-generation robot, still in development, could save the day for the much bigger Hubble in a couple years.<\/p>\n<p>Only China has attempted a mission like the upcoming one, successfully boosting a satellite into a higher graveyard orbit four years ago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the first American space robot to go up and do anything like this,\u201d Lee told The Associated Press. \u201cNASA has all these big senior observatories \u2026 all of them can benefit from a service like this. So what we\u2019re proving with this mission is this is a new play in the playbook that\u2019s available.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It will take Katalyst\u2019s autonomous spacecraft, named Lift, about a month to rendezvous with Swift and catch it, and another couple months to raise its orbit from the current 224 miles (360 kilometers) to the desired 373 miles (600 kilometers).<\/p>\n<p>The 1.6-ton (1.4-metric ton) gamma ray observatory must be above 185 miles (300 kilometers) for the rescue to work. It\u2019s expected to reach that point of no return in October, according to the latest estimates.<\/p>\n<p>Roughly the size of a small kitchen refrigerator with a 40-foot (12-meter) solar wingspan, Lift sports three arms with a reach of just over 3 feet (1 meter). Each arm has two finger-like pinching grippers that resemble the hands of a Lego mini figure.<\/p>\n<p>If all goes well, Swift could be back in business by September, according to Lee.<\/p>\n<p>Worth hundreds of millions of dollars, Swift was never designed to be repaired, let alone retrieved by hands \u2014 human or otherwise. That\u2019s what makes this so challenging, according to company officials, who stress there is no guarantee it will work.<\/p>\n<p>NASA signed a contract with Katalyst last September with only two requests: It has to be a rush job, but please don\u2019t make things worse. Nine months later, the company is ready to rumble.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have to be honest. No one thought it was going to be possible. No one thought we would get as far as we\u2019ve already gotten today,\u201d said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, NASA\u2019s astrophysics director.<\/p>\n<p>NASA has bought a little more time for Swift, turning off all scientific instruments to slow its descent. Observations ceased in February.<\/p>\n<p>NASA\u2019s science mission chief Nicky Fox said it\u2019s worth the effort.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we let Swift reenter, we would lose that telescope. We would lose a lot of capability,\u201d she said. \u201cWe don\u2019t currently have the budget to build another one to replace that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While everything cannot be saved in space, Swift is special, said Domagal-Goldman.<\/p>\n<p>True to its name, Swift is designed to pivot quickly to capture late-breaking astronomical events such as gamma ray bursts and exploding stars. With more discoveries expected by the Webb Space Telescope and soon-to-launch Roman Space Telescope, Swift, if saved, would be busier than ever as \u201cNASA\u2019s first responder.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Katalyst sees Swift as the jumping-off point for a new repair business in space. The company\u2019s next-generation robotic rescuer, scheduled to fly next year, will tackle satellites as high as 22,300 miles (35,800 kilometers) up. Lee envisions hundreds of robots in orbit one day, not only fixing and hoisting satellites but also refueling them and building solar farms, data centers and other platforms.<\/p>\n<p>Thirty-six-year-old Hubble, which received repeat servicing by spacewalking astronauts during the shuttle era, could follow in 2028 with a life-extending Katalyst boost.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a national treasure,\u201d Fox said. \u201cPeople love Hubble.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute\u2019s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=2925\">Man shot and killed by Arapahoe County deputies Saturday after assaulting officer<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=2927\">Aurora Democratic primaries engulfed in claims of libelous, racists attack ads by outside money groups<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=2929\">France records around 1,000 additional deaths as extreme heat sets European records<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. | NASA is racing to save an aging telescope from falling back to Earth with a daring rescue mission. The $30 million salvage operation gets underway as soon as this week with the planned launch of a robotic lifesaver. NASA hired startup Katalyst Space Technologies to boost the Swift Observatory to a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[4745,4746,4747,486,4748],"class_list":["post-2931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nation","tag-ghonhee-lee","tag-hubble-space-telescope","tag-katalyst-space-technologies","tag-nasa","tag-swift-observatory"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>NASA races to save Swift telescope from falling back to Earth with daring rescue mission - Denver Moving Chronicle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=2931\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NASA races to save Swift telescope from falling back to Earth with daring rescue mission - Denver Moving Chronicle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. | NASA is racing to save an aging telescope from falling back to Earth with a daring rescue mission. 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