NASA Launches Robot to Save Space Telescope

Today is Tuesday, June 30, 2026. A robot leaves Earth today. There is a telescope in space. Its name is the Swift telescope. This space telescope is very old. It is from the year 2004. Swift is at 600 kilometers altitude. The old telescope cannot move itself. But the telescope is now falling. The sun changes in cycles. The hot sun makes the air big. This air drags the telescope. Now the telescope is near the Earth. It can burn in the atmosphere. But NASA wants to save Swift. A new robot goes to space. The name of the robot is LINK. A startup company builds the robot. The name of this company is Katalyst. A jet plane carries a small rocket. The name of the rocket is Pegasus. The jet plane drops the rocket. The rocket flies into space. The robot finds the telescope. The robot moves near the telescope. The robot has three arms. The three robot arms are movable. The robot holds the telescope with these arms. Then, the robot pulls the telescope. It moves the telescope 300 kilometers higher. This work takes one month. The telescope is very special. It studies big explosions in space. Scientists call them gamma-ray bursts. The telescope is fast and useful. A new telescope is very expensive. Swift costs 250 million dollars. But the rescue costs 30 million dollars. Regina Caputo is a scientist at NASA. She says, "maybe 50-50" for success. This space mission is very hard. But scientists want to try. A successful mission helps other satellites. The robot can fix and upgrade old satellites.