A robotic servicer built by Katalyst Space is now in orbit after a Pegasus XL rocket deployed LINK over Kwajalein Atoll to rescue NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory.LINK will rendezvous with Swift in about a month, grapple the 1.6-ton telescope and raise its altitude by roughly 150 miles in a $30M mission Katalyst developed in nine months after solar storms accelerated orbital decay.Swift has suspended observations to conserve propellant while engineers verify
LINK's systems; failure would mean losing decades of gamma-ray burst and transient astronomy and
NASA says the same boost technique may be needed for the
Hubble Space Telescope later.