NASA has a satellite that's slowly losing altitude; that's old news, which the agency has known for a long time. In an unprecedented attempt to save it, NASA contracted with a commercial space company to launch a rescue satellite. Now that satellite needs to be rescued before it can rescue the NASA one. But believe it or not, the rescue mission is still on! Backing up a bit: The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory launched back in 2004, designed to study powerful astronomical bursts of energy like gamma rays.