Private spacecraft will give NASA's Swift space telescope an orbital boost in 2026 in 1st-of-its-kind mission

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

A private company will give a powerful NASA space telescope a new lease on life next year, if all goes according to plan.

Arizona-based Katalyst Space Technologies has scored a contract to raise the altitude of NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, which has been hunting for gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) from low Earth orbit (LEO) for more than two decades.