Rescuing satellites is harder than it looks – a growing space junk problem will make doing so more important

An illustration of the plan for the European Space Agency's ClearSpace mission, where a servicing spacecraft will deorbit an ESA satellite. ClearSpace/ESA, CC BY-NC

A commercial robotic spacecraft called LINK launched on an emergency mission to save NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, which has been slowly falling toward Earth, on July 3, 2026. Over the coming weeks, LINK, built by Katalyst Space Technologies, will try to grasp the telescope, then spend months raising it to a safer orbit.