Rocket Attached to Aircraft for Katalyst-NASA Swift Boost

15 June 2026 at 18:23

A rocket attached to the belly of a large airplane

A Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket is affixed to the bottom of the company’s Stargazer, a modified L-1011 aircraft, and ready for departure, as seen on June 12, 2026, at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Inside the rocket is Katalyst Space’s LINK robotic servicing spacecraft, which will launch to boost the orbit of NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory.

NASA/Ron Beard

Engineers attached a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket to the company’s Stargazer aircraft at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on Friday, June 12.

The rocket will carry LINK, a robotic servicing spacecraft from Katalyst Space, into orbit ahead of an attempt to boost NASA’s sinking Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory.

All spacecraft in low Earth orbit experience drag caused by our planet’s atmosphere, which gradually reduces their altitudes unless they have propulsion systems to counteract the effect.

A recent bout of solar activity magnified this effect on Swift, and its orbit has lowered faster than anticipated.

Katalyst selected Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus XL rocket as the best launch option for reaching the observatory in time for LINK to perform the boost procedure, based on the mission’s orbital and programmatic needs. Northrop Grumman will deploy the rocket using Stargazer, the company’s modified L-1011 airplane.

LINK will launch from Kwajalein Atoll, part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific Ocean, later this month.

Learn more about the Swift boost:

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/swift/swift-boost-mission/

By Jeanette Kazmierczak
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

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