NASA Launches Space Robot to Save ‘Multitool’ Orbital Satellite From a Fiery Death

Update, June 3, 9:21 a.m. ET: After publication, NASA reported the successful launch of its mission to save the U.S. space agency’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory telescope, which has been on course to burn up within Earth’s atmosphere sometime in the next few months. The three-armed LINK robot, made for NASA by Katalyst Space, took off from Kwajalein Atoll onboard a converted Lockheed L-1011 aircraft roughly five hours ago, as planned. The LINK was then launched into space from an altitude of 40,000 feet (12.2 kilometers) at 4:36 a.m. ET (or at 8:36 p.m. over Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific) via a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket. Northrop’s Pegasus rocket will now take this “satellite service” robot onward toward a parallel orbit alongside the Swift telescope. NASA suspended all scientific activity onboard its Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory this past February, in the hopes of reducing drag and buying time before the space telescope’s orbital decay drags it down into a fiery death by friction through Earth’s atmosphere. In the months since, the U.S. space agency has raced to put together a “reboost” mission that will reposition the device into a higher, safer orbit. This un