Nasa's 1.4-ton Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is slowly falling towards Earth's atmosphere, and race is on to ensure it is pushed farther away.

Nasa has unveiled plans to extend the life of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory by boosting it into a higher orbit, turning to private industry to conduct a complex satellite servicing manoeuvre once reserved for futuristic concepts.

The space observatory is designed to detect gamma-ray bursts, the universe’s most powerful explosions. It quickly pivots to capture these events in gamma-ray, X-ray, ultraviolet, and optical light, providing real-time data. Swift also studies black holes, supernovae, neutron stars, and other cosmic phenomena.

Swift, launched in 2004 and parked in low-Earth orbit at around 585 km above the planet, is gradually losin

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