A Nasa-funded spacecraft has been sent into space to catch a falling telescope, the BBC reports.
The Swift observatory detects some of the most powerful explosions in the Universe – but is at risk of crashing back to Earth in the coming months.
The small space telescope will be intercepted by the LINK craft, which will attempt to grab it with three robotic arms, and try and lift it back to a safe orbit.
The rescue mission, launched on Friday, has never been attempted before, and Dr Simeon Barber, a space scientist, has said it is “high risk”.
“But Nasa obviously thinks it’s worth a go. And the science community is hopeful about this because it’s an important telescope that enables us to study super high-energy phenomena that we have no other means to study,” said Barber, a senior research fellow at the Open University.
