Northrop Grumman to rescue NASA's Swift observatory in June 2026
After nearly 22 years orbiting Earth and helping us understand cosmic explosions, NASA's Swift Observatory was about to fall back to Earth.
But instead of letting it burn up, Northrop Grumman is sending a rescue mission in late June 2026 to push Swift into a higher orbit, giving it more time to keep doing science.
LINK to launch on Pegasus XL
The mission uses the LINK spacecraft, which will launch on a Pegasus XL rocket and then chase down Swift at 27370km/h.
Using cameras and lidar, LINK will find the best spot for its robotic arms to grab onto Swift (pretty wild since this is the first time a commercial spacecraft will try saving an old government satellite that wasn't designed for this).
If all goes well, Swift could get several more years of exploring deep space.