Northrop Grumman will load the LINK robotic servicing spacecraft from Katalyst Space into a Pegasus XL rocket at the Horizontal Integration Facility at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, shown here. LINK arrived at Wallops on June 5, 2026, to begin integration.
NASA/Ron Beard
The LINK robotic servicing spacecraft, built by Katalyst Space and designed to capture and boost NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory arrived at the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on Friday, June 5.
Inside NASA Wallops’ Horizontal Integration Facility, Northrop Grumman engineers will install the satellite into one of the company’s Pegasus XL rockets ahead of launch.
All spacecraft in low Earth orbit experience drag caused by our planet’s atmosphere. As a result, satellites without propulsion systems to counteract this effect gradually lose altitude and fall toward Earth.
Recent increased solar activity magnified the impact of atmospheric drag on Swift, causing it to sink faster than anticipated.
NASA contracted Katalyst to boost the 21-year-old observatory back to a higher altitude, pioneering a new servicing capability for the nation’s spacecraft fleet and allowing Swift to resume science observations.
After loading LINK into the Pegasus XL, Northrop Grumman will attach the rocket to the bottom of Stargazer, the company’s modified L-1011 aircraft.
Stargazer will deploy Pegasus XL from above Kwajalein Atoll, part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific Ocean, later this month. The rocket will deliver the LINK spacecraft to an orbit where it can reach Swift.
As activities on the ground have raced to get LINK to Swift, the observatory team has been continuously making Swift’s orientation more aerodynamic to preserve altitude.
After more than two decades, the orbit of NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has entered a phase of rapid decay. While NASA could allow the observatory to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere, as many missions do at the ends of their lifetimes, this situation has presented an opportunity to advance American spacecraft servicing technology while also extending the life of a productive science mission. To accomplish this, NASA awarded the U.S. company Katalyst Space a contract in September 2025 to attempt to raise Swift’s orbit.
Engineers from Katalyst Space Technologies in Flagstaff, Ariz., stabilize their LINK robotic servicing spacecraft as it moves into a vibration chamber at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., on April 15, 2026. The vibration chamber simulated the intense shaking LINK will experience during launch.
NASA/Scott Wiessinger
NASA studies how the Sun impacts the space environment, including objects in low Earth orbit, and recent increased solar activity has accelerated Swift’s decay. This has put NASA in a race against the clock before Swift re-enters Earth’s atmosphere in fall 2026. Katalyst’s robotic servicing spacecraft, LINK, will launch on its mission to boost Swift in June 2026 on Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus XL rocket.
Pegasus XL is an air-launched rocket that will be integrated with LINK at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia and then ferried underneath Northrop’s L-1011 carrier aircraft to the Reagan Test Range located on Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific for launch. By launching from Reagan Test Range, Pegasus will be able to deliver LINK directly into Swift’s orbit, where LINK will attempt to rendezvous with Swift and raise it to a higher altitude.
Northrop Grumman’s Stargazer, a modified L-1011 aircraft, soars upward after takeoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. One of the company’s Pegasus XL rockets, carried beneath the aircraft as shown here, will launch Katalyst’s LINK spacecraft.
NASA/Randy Beaudoin
If this daring servicing mission is successful, it will be the first time a commercial robotic mission has captured a NASA spacecraft that is uncrewed and not originally designed to be serviced in space.
Swift studies gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful explosions in the universe, and other cosmic objects and events. In the more than two decades since its launch, Swift has become a key part of NASA’s strategy for studying fleeting and unpredictable changes in the sky from a variety of sources. With its versatility and rapid follow-up capabilities, Swift has enabled the discovery and localization of previously unknown cosmic targets. NASA then follows up these discoveries using different space telescopes, along with ground-based facilities from other agencies, to help us better understand how the universe works. By boosting Swift’s orbit, NASA will retain the observatory’s unique capabilities at a fraction of the cost of designing and building a new mission.
In anticipation of the boost, NASA temporarily suspended Swift science and modified its operations in a way that had never been done in the mission’s lifetime. This enabled controllers to keep the spacecraft in an orientation that minimizes drag effects and extends Swift’s time in orbit. To maximize the boost’s chances of success, Swift’s average altitude needs to be above about 185 miles (about 300 kilometers).
Mission Goals
Demonstrate NASA’s rapid-response capability and foster agile technology development to benefit current and future missions.
Advance U.S. private spacecraft servicing to demonstrate a key commercial capability for the future of space exploration and expand NASA’s use of servicing to a new and broader class of spacecraft.
Retain Swift’s unique capability to lead NASA’s fleet of space telescopes in studying changes in the high-energy universe using a cost-effective approach.
An artist’s concept of NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KBRwyle)
Swift boost facts
Contractor
Katalyst Space in Flagstaff, Arizona
Launch vehicle
Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus XL rocket
Launch location
Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands
Launch date
June 2026
Servicing vehicle
Katalyst’s LINK spacecraft
A 880 pound (400 kilogram) small satellite
Uses three robotic arms to dock with Swift
Controlled rendezvous validated with a full-scale Swift model in a robotic testbed
Precision guidance, navigation, and control
Katalyst Space’s LINK spacecraft will take several months to complete the Swift orbit boost, as outlined in this timeline. In the artist’s concept, LINK is the smaller of the two spacecraft.
Katalyst Space and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
This mosaic of M31 merges 330 individual images taken by the Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope aboard NASA’s Swift spacecraft. It is the highest-resolution image of the galaxy ever recorded in the ultraviolet. The image shows a region 200,000 light-years wide and 100,000 light-years high.
NASA/Swift/Stefan Immler (GSFC) and Erin Grand (UMCP)
Pennsylvania State University, Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University of Leicester, Brera Observatory, ASI Data Center, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Mission Management
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
Program Management
NASA’s Space Science Mission Operations
Mission Operations
Penn State Eberly College of Science, State College, Pennsylvania
In July 2004, technicians in Hangar AE at what is now Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla., removed the final pieces of protective covering from the Swift spacecraft in preparation for its November 2004 launch.
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