Anonymousabout 2 hours ago
NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, a $500 million gamma-ray telescope launched in 2004, is falling out of orbit due to increased solar activity and faces uncontrolled atmospheric reentry by late 2026. A small Arizona startup, Katalyst Space Technologies, just passed critical environmental testing for its $30 million robotic rescue spacecraft — a mission that, if successful in its June 2026 launch window, would mark the first commercial capture and reboost of an uncrewed government satellite never designed for in-space servicing.