NASA is preparing for one of its most ambitious satellite rescue missions yet, launching a robotic spacecraft designed to prevent the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory from plunging back to Earth after more than two decades of groundbreaking space exploration.

The $30 million mission, scheduled to launch as early as Tuesday, will see an autonomous spacecraft named Link, developed by startup Katalyst Space Technologies, attempt to capture and reposition the aging observatory into a higher, more stable orbit.

Swift, launched in 2004, has spent over 20 years detecting gamma-ray bursts, exploding stars, black holes and other high-energy cosmic events. However, intensified solar activity has accelerated the telescope’s orbital decay, leaving NASA with only a narrow window to save the spacecraft before it reaches an altitude from which recovery would no longer be possible.

The rescue vehicle will be launched aboard a Pegasus rocket deployed from an aircraft over the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

After entering orbit, Link will spend about a month catching up with Swift before using its three robotic arms to securely grasp the observatory. The spacecraft will then gradually raise Swift’s orbit from about 360 kilometers to nearly 600 kilometers above Earth over the course of two months, AP reports.

If successful, the operation will extend the telescope’s scientific life by several years, allowing astronomers to continue using it as one of NASA’s fastest-response observatories for detecting powerful cosmic explosions and following up on discoveries made by the James Webb Space Telescope and the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

NASA officials describe the mission as a landmark demonstration of in-orbit servicing technology. Unlike previous spacecraft, Swift was never designed to be repaired or moved once in orbit, making the complex robotic rendezvous and capture a major engineering challenge.

The agency awarded the contract to Katalyst Space Technologies less than a year ago, giving the company just months to design, build and prepare the mission. NASA’s only stipulations were to complete the operation quickly and avoid causing further damage to the observatory.

Should the mission succeed, it could transform the economics of space exploration by proving that valuable satellites can be repaired, refueled or repositioned instead of being abandoned once their orbits deteriorate.

The technology could also provide a lifeline for the iconic Hubble Space Telescope, which is gradually losing altitude under similar conditions. Katalyst believes an upgraded version of its robotic spacecraft could carry out a servicing mission for Hubble as early as 2028, potentially extending the life of one of the world’s most celebrated scientific instruments.

Beyond saving aging observatories, the company envisions a future fleet of robotic spacecraft capable of maintaining satellites, refueling spacecraft, assembling orbital infrastructure and supporting the next generation of commercial space operations.

For NASA, however, the immediate priority is ensuring that Swift remains in orbit—preserving a scientific asset that has transformed humanity’s understanding of the universe for more than two decades.