NASA is embarking on an ambitious rescue mission to prevent its aging Swift Observatory from plummeting back to Earth. The £24 million ($30 million) salvage operation is set to commence as early as this week, deploying a robotic spacecraft designed to boost the telescope into a more stable orbit.
The space agency has contracted startup Katalyst Space Technologies for the critical task. A three-armed robot, built by Katalyst, will launch from an atoll in the Pacific's Marshall Islands aboard an airplane-launched Pegasus rocket, with liftoff potentially occurring on Tuesday.
