Overview
- LINK, a robotic servicer built by Katalyst, is integrated on a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL and is scheduled to launch Saturday, June 27, from an air drop near Kwajalein.
- The plan is for LINK to commission in orbit, rendezvous with the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, extend grappling arms to capture a satellite that has no docking port, and use its engines to raise Swift’s altitude.
- Engineers put Swift into a low‑drag orientation and paused most science operations to slow its descent because increased solar activity has sped atmospheric drag and pushed the observatory toward an uncontrolled reentry risk.
- NASA awarded roughly $30 million through an SBIR Phase III contract and Katalyst built LINK in under a year; the 425 kg vehicle carries three robotic arms, electric Hall thrusters, many reaction-control thrusters, solar arrays, and proximity sensors.
- If LINK succeeds, it would validate rapid commercial robotic servicing as a way to extend government science satellites; if it fails, Swift will likely reenter uncontrolled and scientists would lose a key fast-response observatory.