Robotic LINK spacecraft launches to rescue NASA’s falling Swift telescope

A commercial robot spacecraft is on its way to catch and rescue one of NASA’s veteran space telescopes before it falls out of orbit. Built by Arizona startup Katalyst Space Technologies, the LINK servicing craft launched on 3 July 2026 on a mission to raise the orbit of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory.

Swift has studied gamma-ray bursts, black holes and distant galaxies since its 2004 launch, but it carries no engine of its own. Its orbit has decayed from an original altitude of roughly 600 kilometres (370 miles) to about 400 kilometres (250 miles), and heightened solar activity around the recent solar maximum expanded Earth’s atmosphere and sped up the drag. Without intervention, NASA expected the observatory to make an uncontrolled reentry by the end of 2026.

LINK lifted off from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific and, NASA confirmed, teams established contact with the spacecraft shortly after separation. Katalyst designed, built and flew the craft in roughly nine months under a $30 million Phase III award from NASA, which the agency signed in September 2025 after retiring its own in-house servicing project.

Over the coming weeks LINK will run checkouts of its propulsion, sensors and navigation, then close in and survey the aging observatory. Using three robotic manipulator arms fitted with lidar and grippers, the craft is designed to gently grab Swift — which was never built to be docked with — and tow it back toward its original 600-kilometre altitude over a period of several months.

If it works, NASA says it will be the first time a commercial spacecraft has docked with a government satellite that was never designed for on-orbit servicing, a milestone the agency sees as a template for extending the life of hardware already in space rather than letting it burn up.

Sources: NASA

Drafted with AI assistance and reviewed by the IT Magazine news desk. Facts verified against the linked sources. Spotted an error? See our Corrections Policy.