Imagine this scenario: you have an important space telescope that’s rapidly sinking in altitude, slated to crash down to Earth next year unless you can nudge it back up.

NASA officials are facing that exact predicament as the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is set to fall from its orbit at the end of 2026, according to Space.com — but the agency has green lit an audacious plan that’s one for the history books: a plane drops a rocket in mid air that’s carrying a robotic satellite, which will then blast into space and boost the telescope’s altitude, thereby saving it.

Arizona-based private space company Katalyst Space Technologies, charged by NASA to save the space telescope, announced Wednesday details of this important mission — and with a tight launch schedule set for June 2026.

The com

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