00:00there's a rocket on this airplane and it's going to save a nasa space telescope let me explain
00:05hey space fans it's tarik malik editor-in-chief of space.com i am here at nasa's wallops flight
00:10facility where behind me is a northrop grumman l-10-11 stargazer airplane and it's going to
00:15launch a pegasus rocket to save a nasa space telescope the mission is called swift boost
00:20and that's because it's going to nasa's swift space observatory which has been slowly falling
00:25out of earth orbit since the last year because of the earth's atmosphere which has been puffy
00:30and causing extra drag which means the spacecraft has been falling faster than nasa expected
00:35over time and it can't boost itself up into space but it's got years more of life on it maybe
00:41like
00:41myself at space.com i hope so but in order to actually get those years of life they have to
00:47get it into a higher orbit and this pegasus xl rocket you can see it says catalyst on the side
00:51right there is carrying a link spacecraft with three robotic arms that's going to fly up with
00:56three thrusters capture the swift telescope something that's never been designed to do it
01:01doesn't have any handholds or anything and then fly it up to a higher orbit about 600 kilometers above
01:07the earth which should extend the mission's lifetime by about five years if not more over time allowing
01:13it to hunt gamma-ray bursts the most powerful explosions in the universe it all starts here
01:19on a runway in virginia with a rocket check that out
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