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Rocket Integration Complete for Katalyst-NASA Swift Boost

10 June 2026 at 20:32

LINK attached to the front of the Pegasus XL

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.

NASA contracted Katalyst to build and launch LINK to raise the altitude of the agency’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory.

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.

NASA has previously used similar versions of this launch vehicle to deploy its ICON (Ionospheric Connection Explorer) and NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) spacecraft.

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.

Learn more about the Swift boost at:

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

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

The post Rocket Integration Complete for Katalyst-NASA Swift Boost appeared first on NASA Science.

NASA Wallops to Support June Rocket Launch

NASA Science

9 June 2026 at 20:00

A suborbital rocket is scheduled to launch from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia during a window extending from June 10 – 16, 2026. No real-time launch status updates or livestream will be available.

Aerial view of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility's launch range structures along the coastline of Wallops Island, Virginia. Ocean, bay and marsh lands surround the range.

This March 2026 aerial photograph shows the coastal launch range at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Wallops is the agency’s only owned-and-operated launch range.

Courtesy Patrick J. Hendrickson; used with permission

NASA Wallops provides services such as vehicle tracking, data telemetry, and range safety from NASA’s only owned and operated launch range to ensure successful missions operations for the agency, commercial partners, and other government agencies.

The post NASA Wallops to Support June Rocket Launch appeared first on NASA Science.