Overview
- Launch crews scrubbed the first attempt on June 30 because of unsafe weather and NASA said it will not try again earlier than July 1.
- The mission will send Katalyst Space Technologies’ LINK spacecraft, built under a roughly $30 million contract, on a Pegasus XL rocket released from Northrop Grumman’s Stargazer aircraft out of Kwajalein Atoll.
- After weeks of on‑orbit checkout, LINK will spend about a month closing with Swift, image its rear to pick a grab point, use three robotic arms to latch on, and then fire ion thrusters over weeks to months to raise the combined craft from roughly 360 km toward about 600 km.
- The operation carries high technical risk because Swift was not designed for servicing, engineers lack a complete view of its grapple points, and NASA officials have described success as far from guaranteed with failure likely meaning uncontrolled reentry.
- If it works, the boost would extend Swift’s science life at a small fraction of replacement cost and would serve as a commercial proof of concept for future on‑orbit servicing of other satellites, including possible boosts for telescopes like Hubble.