But Swift is in trouble. The satellite ordinarily orbits the Earth at an altitude of 370 miles. However, atmospheric drag, even at that nosebleed elevation, has slowly pulled Swift down to 210 miles and falling, putting it on target to reenter and burn up as soon as the end of this year—and taking NASA’s quarter-billion-dollar investment with it. The so-called solar maximum, when the sun is at the most energetic point in its 11-year cycle, hasn’t helped any. Solar maximum was reached in late 2024, heating and puffing the Earth’s atmosphere, increasing the drag on all satellites.
NASA, however, has a rescue mission ready to go. Poised on a tarmac on the Kwajalein Atoll in the western Pacific and set to fly as early as tomorrow, July 3, is an L-1011 Stargazer jet, carrying a three-stage Pegasus rocket under its belly; the Pegasus is itself carrying a refrigerator-sized satellite called Link. If all goes according to plan, the plane will fly to 40,000 ft. and there release the Pegasus, which will fire its engines and deliver Link into an orbit matching Swift’s. From there, Link will rendezvous with Swift, take hold of it with its three grappling arms and use its thrusters to carry it to a higher orbit. That’s what the checklist calls for, at least, but there are an awful lot of steps that have to go just-so for the mission to work as planned.
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