Tag: Swift Observatory
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NASA Ends 22-Year Swift Mission After Private Rescue Spacecraft Fails to Boost Orbit
NASA had hoped to extend Swift’s life. In September 2025, the agency awarded a $30 million contract to the Arizona company Katalyst Space Technologies to rescue the observatory, which was falling back to Earth due to atmospheric drag. Swift has no thrusters capable of counteracting that drag, so Katalyst built a refrigerator-sized spacecraft called LINK,…
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LINK Spacecraft Approaches Within 15 Kilometers of Swift but Cannot Complete Orbital Rescue
Katalyst Space’s LINK servicing spacecraft approached within 12 to 15 kilometers of NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory after aligning its orbit with the aging telescope, but an attitude-control problem prevented the vehicle from attempting the capture and orbital boost originally planned to extend Swift’s mission. NASA said on September 4 that LINK would make no…
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Katalyst Link Spacecraft Hit by Attitude Control Failure
Is the Katalyst Link Spacecraft Still Capable of Rebooting Swift? Two of three reaction wheels have failed on Katalyst Space Technologies’ Link spacecraft — and with NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory sitting at approximately 350 kilometers altitude and falling, the margin for error is shrinking fast. In a July 28 social media update, Katalyst confirmed…
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Katalyst LINK Launches to Reboost NASA Swift Observatory
Is NASA’s Swift Observatory About to Be Saved by a $30M On-Orbit Servicing Mission? Katalyst Space’s LINK on-orbit servicing spacecraft lifted off at 4:26 a.m. EDT on July 4, 2026, aboard Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus XL rocket, targeting NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory with a mandate to push the aging gamma-ray telescope into a higher, stable…
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NASA’s $30M Swift Rescue Launches on Pegasus XL’s Final Flight
Can NASA’s $30M LINK Satellite Really Save the Swift Observatory? At 4:36 a.m. EDT on July 3, 2026, a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket completed its 45th — and final — mission, air-launching Katalyst Space Technologies’ LINK satellite from the L-1011 Stargazer carrier aircraft above the Marshall Islands. The target: NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory,…