A NASA Telescope Is Falling Out of Orbit. The Robot Sent to Save It Is Falling Too

NASA's Swift telescope launched in 2004 for a two-year mission, and it is still working. But the Sun has been extra active. That heats and puffs up the thin air high above Earth, and the extra drag is pulling Swift down. Swift has no engine to climb back up.

NASA paid a startup called Katalyst 30 million dollars to build a rescue robot, called LINK, in under a year. LINK launched in July. Weeks later, two of its three reaction wheels (the spinning wheels it uses to point itself) stopped working, and it began to spin. It got within 12 to 15 kilometers of Swift, but never close enough to grab it. In August, NASA called off the rescue. Katalyst expects LINK to come down within weeks, and Swift is expected to follow by the end of the year.

Sources:
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-awards-company-to-attempt-swift-spacecraft-orbit-boost/
https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/swift/2026/07/28/commissioning-update-for-spacecraft-to-boost-nasas-swift/
https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/swift/2026/08/19/nasa-updates-next-steps-for-commercial-swift-boost-mission/
https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/swift/2026/08/28/nasas-swift-restarts-science-observations/
https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/swift/2026/09/04/commercial-spacecraft-for-nasas-swift-boost-continues-tech-demo/
https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/swift/2026/07/03/mission-to-boost-nasas-swift-launches-from-marshall-islands/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nasa-swift-space-telescope-rescue-mission-called-off/
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/swift-space-telescope-failed-rescue
https://spacenews.com/nasa-awards-katalyst-space-contract-to-reboost-swift-spacecraft/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swift_boost_mission

Footage credits:
Swift spacecraft animations - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab - https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14786/
LINK testing at NASA Goddard - NASA/Sophia Roberts and Scott Wiessinger - https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/15044/
LINK integration with Pegasus XL - NASA/Ron Beard - https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/15062/
Pegasus XL mated to Stargazer - NASA/Ron Beard - https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/15060/
Swift on its Delta II, Nov. 2004 - NASA Kennedy Space Center - https://images.nasa.gov/details/04pd2346
Pegasus air launch of IBEX, 2008 (archive) - NASA Kennedy Space Center - https://images.nasa.gov/details/kwj_101908_launch2
Solar flare - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / SDO - https://images.nasa.gov/details/GSFC_20160426_SDO_m12224_SolarFlare_4K
Upper atmosphere from the space station - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center - https://images.nasa.gov/details/GSFC_20180124_m12825_ISS_Airglow
Reaction wheel on Europa Clipper - NASA/JPL-Caltech - https://images.nasa.gov/details/PIA25497
NASA Swift blog update, Aug. 19, 2026 (screenshot) - NASA - https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/swift/2026/08/19/nasa-updates-next-steps-for-commercial-swift-boost-mission/

Orbital Pulse · Insights Beyond Earth