Northrop Grumman’s Stargazer took off Thursday, June 18, 2026, from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The modified L-1011 aircraft carried the company’s Pegasus XL rocket hosting LINK, a robotic servicing spacecraft from Katalyst Space. LINK will launch from the air-deployed Pegasus XL later this month on a mission to boost the orbit of NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory.
NASA/Jeanette Kazmierczak
An airplane carrying a rocket loaded with a robotic spacecraft designed to raise NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory departed the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on Thursday, June 18.
Stargazer, a modified L-1011 operated by Northrop Grumman, took off for Kwajalein Atoll, part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. Attached to the belly of the aircraft was one of the company’s Pegasus XL rockets with LINK inside.
NASA contracted Katalyst Space to design and build LINK to rendezvous and dock with Swift and lift it back to a higher altitude.
Spacecraft in low Earth orbit experience drag caused by our planet’s atmosphere, which gradually reduces their altitude if they do not have propulsion systems to counteract the effect.
Recent solar activity magnified this effect on Swift, which began to sink faster than anticipated.
Katalyst selected Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus XL launch vehicle as the best means of reaching Swift on a short timeline based on orbital and programmatic needs.
Stargazer will carry Pegasus and LINK to Kwajalein Atoll, part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific Ocean with stopovers in California and Hawai’i.
NASA/Jamie Adkins
Later this month, Stargazer will carry the rocket to an altitude of around 40,000 feet before releasing it.
After several seconds in free-fall, Pegasus XL will fire the first of its three-stage rocket motors, delivering LINK into orbit in about 10 minutes.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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