As NASA observatory’s orbit rapidly decays, Colorado company races to save it

An important NASA scientific instrument that studies black holes and exploding stars is falling out of orbit — and quickly.

Now the space agency is looking to the private sector to help raise it back up and give it another day in the sun.

One company in a space race to find a solution? Denver-based Astroscale U.S.

The spacecraft in trouble is the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, which was designed to observe gamma-ray bursts, among the most powerful explosions known in the universe.

And its roots are in Colorado.

The idea for the observatory was born in the basement of the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park during an astrophysics conference more than two decades ago, as scientists wanted a tool to study the hot topic of mysterious gamma-ray bursts, John Nousek, the Swift mission director