Katalyst Space’s LINK robotic servicing satellite awaits encapsulation inside a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL on June 8, 2026, at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The rocket will carry LINK to space for an attempted orbital boost of NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory.
NASA/Ron Beard
Engineers completed installation of Katalyst Space’s LINK robotic servicing spacecraft into a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket on Tuesday, June 9, at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Launch is anticipated later this month.
Our planet’s atmosphere creates drag for spacecraft in low Earth orbit, gradually reducing their altitudes if they don’t have propulsion systems to counteract the effect.
Recent solar activity magnified this effect on Swift, and its orbit decayed faster than anticipated.
Katalyst’s Hunter Robertson prepares LINK ahead of it being attached to the Pegasus XL inside the Horizontal Integration Facility at NASA Wallops on June 6, 2026.
NASA/Ron Beard
Based on the orbital and programmatic needs of the mission, Katalyst selected the air-launched Pegasus XL as the best means of reaching the observatory in time to perform the boost maneuver.
Northrop Grumman will launch the rocket using Stargazer, its modified L-1011 aircraft.
Next, Northrop Grumman engineers will attach Pegasus XL to Stargazer, which will carry it from NASA Wallops to Kwajalein Atoll, part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific Ocean, for launch.
NASA Webb Finds Strongest Evidence Yet for ‘Black Hole Stars’
While the primary purpose of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s observations of galaxy cluster Abell S1063 was to look for a certain population of stars, scientists obtained a detailed spectrum of GLIMPSE-17775 from the dataset. This little red dot is located behind Abell S1063.
Credits: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, Vasily Kokorev (UT Austin); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
The complex puzzle known as little red dots has become more complete since their initial discovery by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in 2022. Now a particular little red dot’s spectrum is helping connect many of the pieces.
A team of astronomers led by Vasily Kokorev at the University of Texas at Austin identified the lucky dot in question: GLIMPSE-17775. By carefully analyzing the dot’s spectrum captured by Webb — the deepest spectrum to date of a little red dot — the research team has identified multiple lines of evidence, all of which support the interpretation that GLIMPSE-17775 is a supermassive black hole enveloped in a dense cocoon of partially ionized gas, a model referred to as the BH* (black hole star) scenario. A paper describing the results was published today in The Astrophysical Journal.
“I think part of the scientific community is converging on a singular picture — that little red dots can be explained by black hole star models. But none of the previous little red dots have all of the pieces of evidence in the same place,” said Kokorev, lead author of the study. “With GLIMPSE-17775 we can test these models because of how deep and amazing this source’s spectrum is.”
Image: Abell S1063 with Pullout of GLIMPSE-17775 (NIRCam Image)
While the primary purpose of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s observations of galaxy cluster Abell S1063 was to look for a certain population of stars, scientists obtained a detailed spectrum of GLIMPSE-17775 from the dataset. This little red dot is located behind Abell S1063.
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, Vasily Kokorev (UT Austin); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
Connecting puzzle pieces
Soon after Webb first began science operations, it discovered a new, mysterious type of object in the very early universe – abundant red objects that emerged about 600 million years after the big bang. Scientists have explored multiple explanations for these little red dots, including the black hole star scenario.
A set of fortunate circumstances brought about this new, elaborate spectrum of a little red dot. The little red dot that would come to be known as GLIMPSE-17775 was fortunately included in Webb’s imaging and spectroscopy efforts for a project that sought to look for Population III stars and faint galaxies in galaxy cluster Abell S1063. This little red dot is more distant than the galaxy cluster and magnified by gravitational lensing. (GLIMPSE-17775 has a cosmological redshift of 3.5, meaning it existed about 1.8 billion years after the big bang.)
While Webb provided a 30-hour spectrum of the little red dot, the effect of gravitational lensing made it equivalent to 80 hours of telescope time. This combination of Webb’s infrared sensitivity and nature’s own “magnifying glass” amplified the amount of detail that could be gleaned from GLIMPSE-17775. The result was more than 40 spectral lines from this small, red source, which is the most detailed little red dot spectrum to date.
“When we saw the spectrum for the first time, it was like having all the pieces of a puzzle scattered on the floor,” said Kokorev. “We picked up each piece of the puzzle, measured the lines, and started combining the different pieces into a mosaic. Maybe a few pieces looked like nothing at first, but then a couple of them came together, and we realized that there was something there.”
The spectroscopic data collected by Webb contains multiple lines of evidence that support the interpretation that little red dot GLIMPSE-17775 is a black hole star: a rapidly accreting, or growing, black hole enveloped in a dense gas cocoon, which is reprocessing the light emitted from near the black hole and producing the features seen in the spectrum.
Image: Evidence of a ‘Black Hole Star’
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured the deepest spectrum to date of a little red dot. More than 40 spectral lines have been discerned from the data, many of which independently support the theory that GLIMPSE-17775 is a black hole enshrouded by a hot, dense gas cocoon.
Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, Vasily Kokorev (UT Austin); Designer: Leah Hustak (STScI)
Lines of evidence
Among the 40-plus lines that the team detected in GLIMPSE-17775’s spectrum were various independent indicators that all align with the BH* scenario. For example, the team found that many of the spectral lines, such as hydrogen, oxygen, and helium, do not fit a simple model of a rotating gas cloud. Instead, the best fit model includes a broadening effect known as electron scattering, a telltale sign that a dense, layered gas cocoon is enshrouding this source.
The strength and ratios of certain lines to each other, most notably the 16 iron lines that compose what the team has dubbed an “iron forest” and certain oxygen lines, require a high-energy source to produce them, like a rapidly accreting black hole. Additionally, astronomers noted the fluorescence and absorption of helium in the spectrum, both of which individually suggest that there is a dense medium enveloping a powerful source.
The BH* scenario not only fits GLIMPSE-17775; it also accounts for why most little red dots are faint in X-rays, since any such emission is likely absorbed by the dense gas cocoon.
One missing element of the GLIMPSE-17775 puzzle piece is the part of the spectrum that would reveal what’s known as a Balmer break, or a strong dip in the emitted light that’s a signature characteristic of little red dots. To build a more comprehensive understanding of this little red dot, the team incorporated ancillary data from two observing programs that used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope: the Frontier Fields and BUFFALO (Beyond Ultra-deep Frontier Fields And Legacy Observations) programs.
The Webb and Hubble data together help explain why the Balmer break is weaker than what typically is found in other little red dots: A giant host galaxy is surrounding GLIMPSE-17775. Although a little red dot’s host galaxy is not something that has been usually seen at such scale before, it isn’t inconsistent with the dense gas cocoon model. The black hole star model of little red dots attributes excess blue light to stars in the host galaxy.
When Webb first discovered little red dots, some researchers thought these objects had “broken cosmology,” unsure how galaxies could have grown so big so quickly in the early universe to account for all this light coming from their stars. However, the team believes the GLIMPSE-17775 puzzle piece fits nicely in the existing framework of the universe’s evolutionary history, because black hole masses don’t need to be as high in order to explain the broad emission lines.
“Everything fits, nothing is broken, and I think that makes the puzzle that is our universe even better,” said Kokorev. “Looking ahead, I’m eager to dive deeper and learn about what is powering the central engines of little red dots. While we think it’s a black hole, there are some other interesting theories being proposed, which is exciting. Maybe in a year or two, we’ll have the final answer to what powers these sources.”
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
The following sections contain links to download this article’s images and videos in all available resolutions followed by related information links, media contacts, and if available, research paper and Spanish translation links.
Related Images & Videos
Abell S1063 with Pullout of GLIMPSE-17775 (NIRCam Image)
While the primary purpose of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s observations of galaxy cluster Abell S1063 was to look for a certain population of stars, scientists obtained a detailed spectrum of GLIMPSE-17775 from the dataset. This little red dot is located behind Abell S1063.
Evidence of a ‘Black Hole Star’
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured the deepest spectrum to date of a little red dot. More than 40 spectral lines have been discerned from the data, many of which independently support the theory that GLIMPSE-17775 is a black hole enshrouded by a hot, dense gas cocoon.
NASA Webb Finds Strongest Evidence Yet for ‘Black Hole Stars’
While the primary purpose of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s observations of galaxy cluster Abell S1063 was to look for a certain population of stars, scientists obtained a detailed spectrum of GLIMPSE-17775 from the dataset. This little red dot is located behind Abell S1063.
Credits: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, Vasily Kokorev (UT Austin); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
The complex puzzle known as little red dots has become more complete since their initial discovery by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in 2022. Now a particular little red dot’s spectrum is helping connect many of the pieces.
A team of astronomers led by Vasily Kokorev at the University of Texas at Austin identified the lucky dot in question: GLIMPSE-17775. By carefully analyzing the dot’s spectrum captured by Webb — the deepest spectrum to date of a little red dot — the research team has identified multiple lines of evidence, all of which support the interpretation that GLIMPSE-17775 is a supermassive black hole enveloped in a dense cocoon of partially ionized gas, a model referred to as the BH* (black hole star) scenario. A paper describing the results was published today in The Astrophysical Journal.
“I think part of the scientific community is converging on a singular picture — that little red dots can be explained by black hole star models. But none of the previous little red dots have all of the pieces of evidence in the same place,” said Kokorev, lead author of the study. “With GLIMPSE-17775 we can test these models because of how deep and amazing this source’s spectrum is.”
Image: Abell S1063 with Pullout of GLIMPSE-17775 (NIRCam Image)
While the primary purpose of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s observations of galaxy cluster Abell S1063 was to look for a certain population of stars, scientists obtained a detailed spectrum of GLIMPSE-17775 from the dataset. This little red dot is located behind Abell S1063.
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, Vasily Kokorev (UT Austin); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
Connecting puzzle pieces
Soon after Webb first began science operations, it discovered a new, mysterious type of object in the very early universe – abundant red objects that emerged about 600 million years after the big bang. Scientists have explored multiple explanations for these little red dots, including the black hole star scenario.
A set of fortunate circumstances brought about this new, elaborate spectrum of a little red dot. The little red dot that would come to be known as GLIMPSE-17775 was fortunately included in Webb’s imaging and spectroscopy efforts for a project that sought to look for Population III stars and faint galaxies in galaxy cluster Abell S1063. This little red dot is more distant than the galaxy cluster and magnified by gravitational lensing. (GLIMPSE-17775 has a cosmological redshift of 3.5, meaning it existed about 1.8 billion years after the big bang.)
While Webb provided a 30-hour spectrum of the little red dot, the effect of gravitational lensing made it equivalent to 80 hours of telescope time. This combination of Webb’s infrared sensitivity and nature’s own “magnifying glass” amplified the amount of detail that could be gleaned from GLIMPSE-17775. The result was more than 40 spectral lines from this small, red source, which is the most detailed little red dot spectrum to date.
“When we saw the spectrum for the first time, it was like having all the pieces of a puzzle scattered on the floor,” said Kokorev. “We picked up each piece of the puzzle, measured the lines, and started combining the different pieces into a mosaic. Maybe a few pieces looked like nothing at first, but then a couple of them came together, and we realized that there was something there.”
The spectroscopic data collected by Webb contains multiple lines of evidence that support the interpretation that little red dot GLIMPSE-17775 is a black hole star: a rapidly accreting, or growing, black hole enveloped in a dense gas cocoon, which is reprocessing the light emitted from near the black hole and producing the features seen in the spectrum.
Image: Evidence of a ‘Black Hole Star’
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured the deepest spectrum to date of a little red dot. More than 40 spectral lines have been discerned from the data, many of which independently support the theory that GLIMPSE-17775 is a black hole enshrouded by a hot, dense gas cocoon.
Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, Vasily Kokorev (UT Austin); Designer: Leah Hustak (STScI)
Lines of evidence
Among the 40-plus lines that the team detected in GLIMPSE-17775’s spectrum were various independent indicators that all align with the BH* scenario. For example, the team found that many of the spectral lines, such as hydrogen, oxygen, and helium, do not fit a simple model of a rotating gas cloud. Instead, the best fit model includes a broadening effect known as electron scattering, a telltale sign that a dense, layered gas cocoon is enshrouding this source.
The strength and ratios of certain lines to each other, most notably the 16 iron lines that compose what the team has dubbed an “iron forest” and certain oxygen lines, require a high-energy source to produce them, like a rapidly accreting black hole. Additionally, astronomers noted the fluorescence and absorption of helium in the spectrum, both of which individually suggest that there is a dense medium enveloping a powerful source.
The BH* scenario not only fits GLIMPSE-17775; it also accounts for why most little red dots are faint in X-rays, since any such emission is likely absorbed by the dense gas cocoon.
One missing element of the GLIMPSE-17775 puzzle piece is the part of the spectrum that would reveal what’s known as a Balmer break, or a strong dip in the emitted light that’s a signature characteristic of little red dots. To build a more comprehensive understanding of this little red dot, the team incorporated ancillary data from two observing programs that used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope: the Frontier Fields and BUFFALO (Beyond Ultra-deep Frontier Fields And Legacy Observations) programs.
The Webb and Hubble data together help explain why the Balmer break is weaker than what typically is found in other little red dots: A giant host galaxy is surrounding GLIMPSE-17775. Although a little red dot’s host galaxy is not something that has been usually seen at such scale before, it isn’t inconsistent with the dense gas cocoon model. The black hole star model of little red dots attributes excess blue light to stars in the host galaxy.
When Webb first discovered little red dots, some researchers thought these objects had “broken cosmology,” unsure how galaxies could have grown so big so quickly in the early universe to account for all this light coming from their stars. However, the team believes the GLIMPSE-17775 puzzle piece fits nicely in the existing framework of the universe’s evolutionary history, because black hole masses don’t need to be as high in order to explain the broad emission lines.
“Everything fits, nothing is broken, and I think that makes the puzzle that is our universe even better,” said Kokorev. “Looking ahead, I’m eager to dive deeper and learn about what is powering the central engines of little red dots. While we think it’s a black hole, there are some other interesting theories being proposed, which is exciting. Maybe in a year or two, we’ll have the final answer to what powers these sources.”
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
The following sections contain links to download this article’s images and videos in all available resolutions followed by related information links, media contacts, and if available, research paper and Spanish translation links.
Related Images & Videos
Abell S1063 with Pullout of GLIMPSE-17775 (NIRCam Image)
While the primary purpose of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s observations of galaxy cluster Abell S1063 was to look for a certain population of stars, scientists obtained a detailed spectrum of GLIMPSE-17775 from the dataset. This little red dot is located behind Abell S1063.
Evidence of a ‘Black Hole Star’
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured the deepest spectrum to date of a little red dot. More than 40 spectral lines have been discerned from the data, many of which independently support the theory that GLIMPSE-17775 is a black hole enshrouded by a hot, dense gas cocoon.
The Neil Gehrels’ Swift Observatory is NASA’s astrophysics multitool, capable of quickly observing a wide range of cosmic objects in visible, ultraviolet, X-ray, and gamma-ray light. It launched as the Swift Gamma-ray Observatory on Nov. 20, 2004. In 2018, the agency renamed it in honor of Neil Gehrels, who helped develop the mission and served as its first principal investigator.
At launch, Swift was a first-of-its kind multiwavelength observatory designed to study gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful explosions in the cosmos, using its three telescopes.
The spacecraft, which was built by Northrop Grumman (formerly General Dynamics), is named after the bird for its ability to rapidly turn to study bursts and their afterglows, which has made it a key player in NASA’s fleet of spacecraft that participate in time-domain astronomy, the study of astronomical objects across various divisions of time, from microseconds to decades or more.
Swift is also important to multimessenger astronomy, which involves detecting light — the best-known astrophysical “messenger” — emitted from sources discovered by observatories sensitive to non-electromagnetic signals, like high-energy particles and space-time ripples called gravitational waves. It has contributed to the study of everything from comets in our solar system to black hole activity in distant galaxies.
In January 2025, the Swift team realized the spacecraft would re-enter the atmosphere in the summer of 2026. NASA decided to attempt to boost the observatory to advance U.S. private spacecraft servicing, demonstrating a key capability for the future of space exploration, and extend Swift’s scientific lifetime.
Lead NASA center:
Goddard Space Flight Center
Operations center:
Pennsylvania State University’s Eberly College of Science
Launch:
November 20, 2004
Wavelengths:
Visible, ultraviolet, X-ray, gamma-ray
Height:
18.5 feet (5.6 meters)
Weight:
3,200 pounds (1,470 kilograms)
Solar panel length:
13 feet (4 meters)
This infographic highlights some of the achievements of NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, which has become the agency’s astrophysics multitool since launching in 2004. The spacecraft studies a wide range of objects, from those near Earth, to stars, black holes, and gamma-ray bursts — the most powerful explosions in the cosmos.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Swift viewed our neighboring spiral galaxy Andromeda, also called M31, in ultraviolet light. The image was made from 330 snapshots from Swift’s Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope. Some 20,000 ultraviolet sources are visible in the image, including M32, a small galaxy in orbit around M31. Dense clusters of hot, young, blue stars sparkle in the disk beyond the galaxy’s smooth, redder central bulge.
NASA/Swift/Stefan Immler (GSFC) and Erin Grand (UMCP)
A pair of monster black holes swirl in a cloud of gas in this artist’s concept of AT 2021hdr, a recurring outburst studied by Swift and the Zwicky Transient Facility at Palomar Observatory in California.
NASA/Aurore Simonnet (Sonoma State University)
About LINK
NASA contracted Katalyst Space, in Flagstaff, Arizona, to boost Swift in September 2025. The company had one year to design, build, test, and launch its LINK robotic servicing spacecraft to meet, grab, and lift Swift.
The Katalyst team constructed LINK at its Broomfield, Colorado, facility and tested it there and at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
LINK will launch on a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket in June 2026. Once in space, the Katalyst team will spend several weeks checking out the satellite’s major systems, including power, navigation, and sensors.
Then LINK will approach Swift and complete a visual survey. The Katalyst team has identified several potential grab points, but after 20 years of wear and tear in space, those locations need to be verified with the Swift team before moving forward.
After the inspection is complete, LINK will use its three robotic arms to secure Swift before slowly boosting it to nearly its original orbit of around 370 miles (600 kilometers) over the course of several months. LINK’s three ion thrusters are powered by about 130 pounds (60 kilograms) of xenon gas.
Once the lift is complete, LINK will detach from Swift and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere.
Company:
Katalyst Space
Launch:
June 2026
Height:
5 feet (1.5 meters)
Weight:
935 pounds (425 kilograms)
Solar panel length:
20 feet (6 meters)
Propulsion:
Three xenon-fueled thrusters
Robotic arms:
Three, deployed after launch
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
Kieran Wilson, LINK’s principal investigator at Katalyst, and Hunter Robertson, a space systems engineer at Katalyst, stand next to their spacecraft inside the SES (Space Environment Simulator) at NASA Goddard on April 17, 2026, ahead of thermal vacuum testing. During testing in the SES, LINK fired its three thrusters, deployed one of its three arms, and experienced space-like hot and cold temperatures.
NASA/Sophia Roberts
Engineers from Katalyst Space unpack LINK at NASA Goddard on April 14, 2026. The satellite underwent vibration and thermal testing ahead of launch in June.
NASA/Sophia Roberts
About Pegasus XL
The Pegasus XL was the first U.S. air-deployed orbital launch vehicle and the first commercially developed launcher. Originally produced by Orbital Sciences Corporation, the rockets are now operated by Northrop Grumman, which is headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia.
The Pegasus XL can carry payloads up to about 1,000 pounds (450 kilograms).
To launch the Pegasus XL, Northrop Grumman’s Stargazer, a modified L-1011 aircraft, carries the rocket to around 40,000 feet before releasing it. After several seconds in free-fall, the Pegasus XL fires the first of its three-stage rocket motors, typically delivering its payload into orbit in about 10 minutes.
Because Northrop Grumman can launch the Pegasus XL from almost anywhere in the world, Katalyst selected the rocket for deployment to reach Swift’s low-inclination orbit near the equator on the mission’s condensed timeline.
LINK will take off from above Kwajalein Atoll, part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific Ocean.
Company:
Northrop Grumman
Length:
57 feet (17 meters)
Weight:
53,000 pounds (24,000 kilograms)
Payload weight:
Up to 1,000 pounds (450 kilograms)
Launch altitude:
40,000 feet
Launch location:
Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands
Northrop Grumman’s modified L-1011 Stargazer takes off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Oct. 1, 2019. The company’s Pegasus XL rocket, containing NASA’s ICON (Ionospheric Connection Explorer), is attached beneath the aircraft.
NASA/Randy Beaudoin
A technician completes final checks of NASA’s NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) before the Pegasus payload fairing is secured around it ahead of the satellite’s launch in 2012.
NASA
Watch how a Pegasus XL rocket, dropped by Stargazer, carried NASA's Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System into orbit.
Northrop Grumman
Swift Boost Mission Homepage
Get the highlights of the plan to lift NASA’s Swift.
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.
NASA-Funded Study Shows Wildfire Smoke’s Hidden Ozone Toll
Canadian wildfire smoke carried carbon monoxide — a building block of ground-level ozone — thousands of miles downwind in June 2023.
Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Wildfire smoke is stoking a new challenge for cleaner air. A NASA-supported study published Thursday found that, over the last decade, wildfires have worsened ground-level ozone pollution across much of the contiguous United States, creating unhealthy air far from active flames.
Wildfires have become an increasingly important contributor to ground-level ozone, or smog, across much of the United States, researchers report June 4 in the journal Science. Nationally, fires offset nearly four years’ worth of ozone-control gains, with larger setbacks in the West and Midwest.
Smoke often is associated with the soot, ash, and other fine particles that make the air look hazy. But wildfires also emit gases such as carbon monoxide, which can help form surface ozone in sunlight when other pollutants are present. Surface ozone is an invisible pollutant harmful to human health, plants, and crops. As smoke plumes travel and mix with other pollution, those reactions can drive ozone increases hundreds or even thousands of miles from active fires.
“NASA Earth observations, along with ground monitoring networks, help reveal air quality risks from wildfires that can cross state lines, giving air quality managers better decision-making information as wildfire smoke affects more communities,” said John Haynes, manager of NASA Earth Action’s Health and Air Quality program at the agency’s Headquarters in Washington. “This is a strong example of NASA science serving communities here in the U.S.”
Building a clearer ozone picture
High in the atmosphere, ozone shields Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation. Near the ground, however, ozone can irritate lungs, worsen asthma and other respiratory diseases, and increase health risks for children, older adults, outdoor workers, and people with existing health conditions.
To track surface ozone changes, researchers turned to deep learning, a form of artificial intelligence that finds patterns across large datasets. They used it to build a first-of-its-kind dataset estimating daily surface ozone from 2003 to 2024 on a kilometer-by-kilometer grid — about 0.6 miles on each side — across the contiguous U.S. The work received support from NASA’s Health and Air Quality program and other NASA grants.
The scientists combined data from about 1,000 ground-based air quality stations with atmospheric model data, weather information, wildfire pollution data, and satellite-derived information, including products from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments.
Smoke from Canada’s 2023 wildfires spread across North America. Tan to deep red colors show smoke intensity, estimated from black carbon in NASA’s GEOS-FP model.
NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS) and NASA’s Global Modeling Assimilation Office (GMAO)
Their analysis revealed two distinct periods. From 2003 to 2015, U.S. ground-level ozone generally declined as emissions of ozone-forming pollutants decreased. After 2015, however, those gains slowed or reversed in many places. By comparing estimated ozone levels with scenarios that removed wildfire influence, the researchers found that pollution from wildfires was a main factor in that shift.
Without the wildfire contribution, ground-level ozone in the Midwest, for example, would likely have continued to decline. Instead, wildfires erased about 5.3 years’ worth of ozone-control progress since 2015.
“People in the Midwest may think fires burning far away will not affect them,” said the study’s corresponding author Jun Wang, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. “But once wildfire pollution is in the air, it can move across regions. Pollution from one place can affect air quality in another.”
Measuring the health toll
The study also found that wildfire-driven ozone increased exposure to unhealthy air and likely contributed to premature deaths. Premature deaths associated with long-term wildfire-related ozone exposure in the U.S. increased by an estimated 318 deaths per year after 2013, with the post-2013 average 46% higher than in the previous decade. The researchers calculated premature deaths using average lifespan, ozone exposure estimates, and population density.
The 2023 Canadian wildfires showed how widely those risks can spread, with smoke-driven ozone increases stretching across the Midwest and into parts of the Northeast and South. Overall, from 2022 to 2024, wildfires exposed an additional 43 million people in the U.S. to conditions that did not meet current federal air quality standards for ozone, the researchers estimated.
Capturing that national picture is difficult from ground monitors alone. Ground monitors remain the backbone of U.S. air quality tracking, but they do not cover every community. NASA’s scientifically validated satellite observations and models help researchers and agencies see air quality patterns across states, regions, and fire seasons.
That broader air quality work includes newer missions such as TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution). Launched in 2023, TEMPO is NASA’s first mission to use a space-based spectrometer to provide hourly daytime measurements of air quality over North America. Its view is sharp enough to distinguish pollution patterns, including surface ozone, across areas only a few square miles wide, a major improvement over earlier satellites.
Together, these capabilities help researchers and agencies see smoke-related ozone patterns that might otherwise be harder to detect, especially in rural and remote areas.
The work also points toward a practical use of NASA science during fire season. Wang’s team has used NASA support to develop FireAQ, a decision-support system that brings satellite observations, model forecasts, and fire and aerosol products into weekly briefings with state and local air quality officials. The goal is to help officials see where smoke-related pollution may move next and give communities better information.
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