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8h ago

Launch Failure Delays Mission to Rescue NASA’s Swift Telescope

A last‑minute problem with the Pegasus XL rocket forced controllers to abort release and postpone the flight, leaving Swift’s orbit at risk of reentry this fall.

Katalyst engineers attach Link to a baseplate inside the Space Environment Simulator at NASA Goddard on April 28, 2026. The team practiced firing the satellite’s ion thrusters and operated one of the robotic arms while they cycled through space-like temperatures.
A spacecraft built by space startup Katalyst Space that will tow NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory into a higher orbit awaits encapsulation aboard a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, U.S. June 8, 2026. REUTERS/NASA/Ron Beard
Swift's ultraviolet image of the Andromeda galaxy, the largest and closest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way
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Overview

  • Mission controllers aborted the Pegasus XL release on Thursday after detecting an unspecified launch‑vehicle problem, and teams have postponed the flight with no new launch date set.
  • The flight was carrying Katalyst Space’s LINK servicer, an autonomous, three‑armed robot built in nine months under a roughly $30 million NASA contract to grapple and reboost the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory.
  • LINK was designed to take about a month to reach Swift, about a week to perform final approach and capture, and roughly 60 days to slowly raise the telescope to a safer altitude using ion thrusters.
  • Swift is rapidly losing altitude because of increased solar activity and could reenter the atmosphere as early as October if it is not successfully reboosted, making the delay time‑sensitive.
  • If it goes ahead, the mission would validate low‑cost commercial on‑orbit servicing and carry broader strategic and scientific implications because Swift was not built for grappling and the Pegasus vehicle used is among the last in its line.