Private mission to save NASA space telescope will launch in 2026 on a rocket dropped from a plane

A yellow spacecraft hovers over the Earth in low-Earth orbit.

A history-making robotic rescue mission scheduled to launch next year will fly on a rocket dropped from a plane.

In September, NASA announced that it has chosen Arizona company Katalyst Space Technologies to boost the altitude of its Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, a space telescope whose orbit has gotten dangerously low since its November 2004 launch.