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NASA Launches $30M Swift Rescue, Extends Telescope Life

7/6/2026

Summary

NASA Rescues Swift

NASA launched the Swift Boost rescue mission from Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands on July 3 at 4:36 AM Eastern.
LINK, a robotic spacecraft from Arizona startup Katalyst Space, powered on, will undergo health checks and then dock with the 21-year-old Swift Observatory to raise its orbit from 224 mi to 370 mi in 10-12 weeks, extending its life by a decade.
Rescue costs $30 million and averts $500 million Swift telescope’s loss of orbit by year-end.

Summary

NASA Boosts Swift

NASA awarded Katalyst Space a contract in September 2025 to boost Swift, its first private orbital-servicing mission.
The boost is part of an orbital-servicing program that will test a cryocoupler in June 2026.
Solar activity has expanded Earth’s upper atmosphere, adding drag that could deorbit Swift by the end of 2026.
Officials say a successful Swift service would prove capabilities for future deep-space and lunar projects.

Summary

NASA Extends Swift

LINK will undergo weeks of checkouts before ascent, a cost-effective rescue alternative to building a new observatory.
Science teams expect Swift to resume observations about a month after the boost, extending gamma-ray monitoring into the 2030s.
The mission’s timing aligns with the Roman Space Telescope launch on August 30, ensuring continuous coverage in NASA’s astrophysics suite.

History

Historical Context

NASA’s 1993 STS-61 mission on Space Shuttle Endeavour performed five record-setting EVAs to install the COSTAR optics and new camera, fixing Hubble’s mirror flaw and costing about $500 million beyond the shuttle flight. That success proved orbital servicing could extend flagship telescopes, a principle now applied to the aging Swift gamma-ray observatory, whose orbit will be boosted to keep it operational into the 2030s.

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NASA Rescues Swift

NASA launched the Swift Boost rescue mission from Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands on July 3 at 4:36 AM Eastern.
LINK, a robotic spacecraft from Arizona startup Katalyst Space, powered on, will undergo health checks and then dock with the 21-year-old Swift Observatory to raise its orbit from 224 mi to 370 mi in 10-12 weeks, extending its life by a decade.
Rescue costs $30 million and averts $500 million Swift telescope’s loss of orbit by year-end.

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