A recovery mission to rescue NASA's telescope Swift Observatory launched on Friday, with a three-armed spacecraft successfully rocketing into orbit from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
The Swift telescope satellite is 1.6 tons (1.4 metric tons) and circling 224 miles (360 kilometers) above Earth.
US defense contractor Northrop Grumman launched Katalyst Space Technologies' three-armed Link spacecraft to do the job of reaching and capturing Swift in roughly a month.
"This is a high-risk, high-reward mission," Katalyst Space CEO Ghonhee Lee said ahead of liftoff.
"The biggest danger was always we don't launch anything and we let Swift burn up in the atmosphere. So we were always trying to avoid that risk, and our team has done that," Lee added.
