It’s becoming a tough time for an unprecedented satellite-rescue mission.
A private spacecraft called “Link” is set to take off late next month to meet NASA Neil Gehrels Swift Observatorywhich was launched low earth orbit (LEO) discovered powerful space explosions known as gamma-ray bursts in 2004.
Swift is still working fine. But atmospheric drag is pulling it down at an ever-increasing rate, and the telescope is powerless to resist it; It does not have a propulsion system. Add If all goes according to plan, rendezvous with Swift in LEO and boosting it to higher altitudes, Scope will be the keeper.
This plan is bold and unprecedented. Link, built by Arizona-based Catalyst Space Technologies, aims to become the first private spacecraft to capture a US government-run robotic satellite.
That won’t be easy to do, especially since it’s unclear where Swift will be in the coming months. that’s because earth’s atmosphere – And so the pressure it exerts on the orbiting spacecraft – is not constant. When does our air cover expand? Sun It is active and shrinks during solar calm.
solar activity fluctuates 11 year cycleWhose most recent phase peaked in 2024. that intense phase of space weather Note to the Swift team: Modeling work conducted in early 2025 predicted that the telescope would re-enter the atmosphere by the summer of 2026.
That dire forecast laid the groundwork for Link’s rescue mission, which NASA funded through a $30 million contract with Catalyst. Modeling work also continues, as NASA and the company develop their “accelerated plan” to raise Swift’s orbit.
“These predictions evolve over time based on space weather forecasts and other factors such as Swift’s current altitude and orientation,” said Michael Shoemaker, deputy flight dynamics lead in NASA’s SSMO (Space Science Mission Operations). Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said in a Statement of 26 May.
Shoemaker and his team aren’t just doing this for Swift; They make such predictions for various satellites, both active and inactive. Their model incorporates a wide range of data, including details of each satellite team, tracking information collected by US Space Force and solar activity research from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center.
Shoemaker and his colleagues are now preparing weekly orbital predictions for Swift, which the mission team uses to make decisions about “when to pause science observations and how to steer the spacecraft to reduce drag as much as possible,” NASA officials said in the same statement.
He added, “This innovative new approach to operating Swift has allowed them to successfully slow its orbital decay.”
As a result, Swift will likely remain at least 185 miles (300 kilometers) above Earth — the “critical altitude,” according to NASA, that gives Link’s orbit-raising mission the best chance for success — in early fall.
This is good news, but the modeling team still has work to do.
“We are also working on predictions of where Swift will be when Link launches in June at Northrop Grumman pegasus rocket” Russell Carpenter, deputy project manager at SSMO, said in the same statement.
“The Swift revitalization project has generated intense interest in the flight mobility community,” he said. “The SWIFT team is grateful that so many people are willing to help refine these predictions.”
