Tech Desk: NASA is launching its ambitious Swift Boost mission later this month, a critical effort to save the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, a vital space telescope whose orbit is decaying faster than anticipated. This daring rescue operation, set for June 27, aims to extend the observatory’s lifespan by several years, preventing its premature re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.

The Swift telescope is losing altitude due to increased atmospheric drag, a direct consequence of recent heightened solar activity. To counter this, NASA has partnered with Arizona-based Katalyst Space to develop LINK, a specialized robotic spacecraft. LINK will dock with the observatory and gently tug it into a higher, more stable orbit.

Engineers at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility recently completed installing LINK onto a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket, which was then attached to the belly of the Stargazer plane. The plane has already departed for Kwajalein Atoll, from where it will release the rocket at 40,000 feet. The Pegasus XL will then launch LINK into space within minutes.

Launched in 2004, the Swift Observatory is a cornerstone of space research, initially designed to study gamma-ray bursts but now serving as a general-purpose multi-wavelength observatory. It acts as a crucial “dispatcher,” identifying sudden cosmic events and providing critical data that allows other observatories, like the James Webb Space Telescope, to follow up and unravel deeper mysteries of the universe.