Private Spacecraft to Boost NASA Telescope's Orbit for the First Time

NASA has announced that for the first time, it will contract out a private spacecraft to reboost one of its falling satellites: the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. The observatory has spent the past 20 years searching for gamma-ray bursts. The commercial company will launch a new reboosting spacecraft in spring 2026, hoping to raise the ailing satellite’s orbit and help it continue its work for many years to come.
NASA has reboosted its own satellites and spacecraft before, but it’s never contracted that job out to a private entity without it being part of the original mission parameters. Next year, though, that’s exactly what it’s going to do in an effort to keep this telescope working. Opting for someone else to do it is partially a matter of funding, but also of turnaround time. The contractor, Arizona’s Katalyst Space Technologies, could do it on a reasonable timeline, where NASA wouldn’t have been able to hit the target on its own.
“Given how quickly Swift’s orbit is decaying, we are in a race against the clock, but by leveraging commercial technologies that are already in development, we are meeting this challenge head-on,” Shawn Domagal-Goldman, acting director of the astrophysics division at NASA Headquarters, said (via Space.com).
The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory telescope launched in 2004 and monitors X-ray and UV-visible light at the location of gamma ray bursts, although it can also be used as a general multi-wavelength observatory. Originally designed for a mere two-year orbit, it’s enjoyed over two decades of operation, and NASA wants to keep it flying for a lot longer. However, as the Earth’s atmosphere has dragged it down lower and lower, it’s becoming at risk of deorbiting entirely, so it’s time to give it a boost.
Katalyst was funded with $30 million to build reboosting spacecraft as part of NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) scheme. Since the telescope was not originally designed for reboosting, Katalst must design a bespoke spacecraft that won’t damage the telescope.
If this mission proves successful, NASA has hinted that it may use more commercial ventures to reboost its spacecraft in the future.
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