{"id":44052,"date":"2026-03-23T22:22:56","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T14:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/a-unique-nasa-satellite-is-falling-out-of-orbit-this-team-is-trying-to-rescue-it\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T22:22:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T14:22:56","slug":"a-unique-nasa-satellite-is-falling-out-of-orbit-this-team-is-trying-to-rescue-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/a-unique-nasa-satellite-is-falling-out-of-orbit-this-team-is-trying-to-rescue-it\/","title":{"rendered":"A unique NASA satellite is falling out of orbit\u2014this team is trying to rescue it"},"content":{"rendered":"

BROOMFIELD, Colorado\u2014One of NASA\u2019s oldest astronomy missions, the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, has been out of action for more than a month as scientists await the arrival of a pioneering robotic rescue mission.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old spacecraft is falling out of orbit, and NASA officials believe it\u2019s worth saving\u2014for the right price. Swift is not a flagship astronomy mission like Hubble or Webb, so there\u2019s no talk of sending astronauts or spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a rescue expedition. Hubble was upgraded by five space shuttle missions, and billionaire and commercial astronaut Jared Isaacman\u2014now NASA\u2019s administrator\u2014proposed a privately funded mission to service Hubble in 2022, but the agency rejected the idea.<\/p>\n

Swift may be a more suitable target for a first-of-a-kind commercial rescue mission. It has cost roughly $500 million (adjusted for inflation) to build, launch, and operate, but it is significantly less expensive than Hubble, so the consequences of a botched rescue would be far less severe. Last September, NASA awarded a company named Katalyst Space Technologies a $30 million contract to rapidly build and launch a commercial satellite to stabilize Swift\u2019s orbit and extend its mission.<\/p>\n

The Swift observatory is flying in low-Earth orbit, where the outermost layers of the atmosphere still exert some aerodynamic influence on satellites. The spacecraft launched in November 2004 on a mission to detect gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful explosions in the known Universe. Despite its age, astrophysicists still rely on Swift\u2019s multi-wavelength instruments to identify and locate gamma-ray bursts for follow-up observations by other observatories.<\/p>\n

Gamma-ray bursts happen without warning, when massive stars die and form black holes or during mergers of neutron stars and black holes. Their afterglow can last from a few seconds to up to a few hours. Scientists need satellites like Swift to find and study them. One of Swift\u2019s unique abilities is to quickly turn to point toward gamma-ray sources before they fade, a proficiency that gave the mission its name. Until last month, the mission remained operational and scientifically productive, and there is no other US satellite that fully replicates Swift\u2019s capabilities.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

But the Swift spacecraft will surely crash back to Earth, likely before the end of this year, without a reboost. That\u2019s where Katalyst comes in. The company\u2019s robotic servicing spacecraft, named Link, will attempt to rendezvous and dock with the Swift satellite, then raise its altitude to give the observatory a new lease on life.<\/p>\n

That is, if everything goes according to plan.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Artist\u2019s illustration of Katalyst\u2019s Link spacecraft (top) approaching NASA\u2019s Swift observatory (bottom).<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n Katalyst Space Technologies<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Deadline looming<\/h2>\n

There are a few things you should know about this venture. First, Swift was never designed to be captured or reboosted in orbit. Second, this mission is the first time Katalyst will attempt to dock with another satellite in space. And third, NASA gave Katalyst a daunting timetable of just nine months to build, test, and launch the rescue mission before Swift\u2019s altitude falls too low for a safe rendezvous.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is really technically ambitious,\u201d said Ghonhee Lee, founder and CEO of Katalyst.<\/p>\n

Launch is scheduled for June 1, and there\u2019s little margin for error. By late summer or early fall, Swift will slip below 200 miles (320 kilometers), too low for Katalyst to have confidence in controlling its spacecraft. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of drag with two big spacecraft docking together, \u201d Lee said. \u201cOriginally, we thought we had more time.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s goals are twofold: first, demonstrate an important capability for the future of space exploration, and second, save Swift from a fiery demise and continue its scientific observations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe realized that you can\u2019t get 100 percent guaranteed success on this,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n

When Ars visited Katalyst in late February, technicians were heads-down at work stations, soldering parts, assembling solar panels, and preparing components for environmental testing. For a traditional government space mission, a project might be at this stage of manufacturing years before reaching the launch pad.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not quite as mature as you would expect,\u201d one company official said. \u201cKeep in mind that we started this whole thing about five months ago, so we are making great progress by those standards.\u201d<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

Reporters are natural skeptics, but there was little room for doubt among the Katalyst employees I spoke with. The company is working nights and weekends, accepting risk, pivoting to new ideas, and striving for \u201cgood enough.\u201d Katalyst has about 40 employees working on the Swift rescue, all within yelling distance on the factory floor.<\/p>\n

When Katalyst started ordering parts for the rescue mission, officials found that some subcontractors were unable to provide components on such an unusually short schedule. Katalyst rapidly swapped vendors or, in some cases, decided to build things on its own.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re basically doing it where everything is coming together,\u201d Lee said. \u201cThe design, the testing, and the verification are all happening at once.\u201d<\/p>\n

A new way of doing business<\/h2>\n

NASA has long pursued robotic satellite servicing. The agency spent $1.5 billion on a now-canceled project that advanced several key technologies for in-orbit reboost, repair, and refueling, but in the end, it never left the ground. Now, NASA is buying a service from a company that uses a model similar to the one the agency used for the Commercial Crew and Cargo programs.<\/p>\n

In a press release announcing the contract with Katalyst last year, Shawn Domagal-Goldman, director of NASA\u2019s astrophysics division, said the rescue mission uses a \u201cforward leaning, risk-tolerant approach\u201d and \u201cis both more affordable than replacing Swift\u2019s capabilities with a new mission, and beneficial to the nation\u2014expanding the use of satellite servicing to a new broader class of spacecraft.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only Northrop Grumman, one of the nation\u2019s largest aerospace and defense contractors, has completed a successful commercial servicing mission with a satellite that was not originally designed to receive visitors. Founded in 2020, Katalyst has flown two small satellites in orbit to date, and the company is developing a maneuverable spacecraft platform named Nexus, which is designed to approach, inspect, or service other objects in orbit. The prime market for Nexus will be the US military.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

The Link servicing platform selected for the Swift rescue is an intermediate step before Nexus.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing under this program is inventing new technology,\u201d Lee said. \u201cWe\u2019re taking technology that\u2019s already been developed, either here or just in the broader industry, and putting it together in the smart way that allows us to move really quickly. And it\u2019s also only $30 million.\u201d<\/p>\n

Katalyst beat out competing proposals from Starfish Space and a team consisting of Cambrian Works and Astroscale to win the contract to save Swift last September.<\/p>\n

At that time, officials expected Swift would reenter the atmosphere around the end of this year, or perhaps as late as the first part of 2027. But the Sun has been active, triggering strong geomagnetic storms. With those storms, the Earth\u2019s atmosphere expands, leading to more air resistance in low-Earth orbit. Now, engineers predict Swift will decay sometime between late July and October, Lee said.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Concept of operations for the Swift rescue mission.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n Katalyst Space Technologies<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Will this actually work?<\/h2>\n

\u201cNo kidding, if we don\u2019t launch in June, there\u2019s real danger that this mission doesn\u2019t come together,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n

Katalyst is trading reliability for time. \u201cIt\u2019s better to put together a functional spacecraft that has a realistic shot pulling off the mission than delaying by two or three months to ensure another 1, 2, 3, 4 percent of reliability,\u201d Lee said. \u201cIt\u2019s just better to get it up there. I think NASA understands that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat contrasts deeply with the previous idea of  \u2018do no harm,\u2019\u201d Lee said. \u201cNow, \u2018do no harm\u2019 is a fine mentality, but I think that it can lead to stifling innovation because you just never take a chance on anything. This is the perfect mix between operational need and risk tolerance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Katalyst is one of a growing roster of US companies interested in RPO, or rendezvous and proximity operations. In many cases, these companies have outrun the government in RPO expertise. NASA spent nearly 10 years developing a government-owned servicing demo mission before its cancellation in 2024. A DARPA program has faced similar delays.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re building on those shoulders, so I definitely want to credit them,\u201d Lee said of NASA. \u201cThe problem with those programs is that they never really had a customer or a use case. It was \u2018Oh, let\u2019s go do a bunch of different things and hope that somebody will see the value in it.\u2019 The danger of that is you get massive amounts of scope creep, and that\u2019s exactly what happened. The programs were constantly delayed.\u201d<\/p>\n

In contrast, the commercial world places a premium on flight demonstrations. \u201cFor us, these things have to fly, otherwise our company doesn\u2019t deserve to exist,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n

Guessing game<\/h2>\n

No one has tried to rescue a satellite on the cusp of reentering the atmosphere. Last month, NASA suspended most science operations on Swift in an effort to reduce atmospheric drag and slow the spacecraft\u2019s orbital decay. Ground controllers will keep the satellite in an orientation that minimizes drag effects.<\/p>\n

If Katalyst is able to launch the rescue before Swift drops too close to Earth, engineers aren\u2019t sure what they\u2019ll find when they pull up to the spacecraft.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the big things in developing this mission is there\u2019s not a lot of great information about Swift looked like prior to launch,\u201d a Katalyst manager said as we stood under a full-scale model of the bottom of the Swift observatory. This is the lab where engineers test the robotic arms that will capture the satellite.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis view that we have right here, there are no pictures that show this angle. None that we\u2019ve found so far,\u201d the manager said. Katalyst looked through archives from NASA and Northrop Grumman, which built the satellite. \u201cThere are pictures of lots of things around here,\u201d the official said. \u201cThere isn\u2019t one at the end of closeout where you\u2019re, like, \u2018OK, yeah, this is what we should be expecting.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

Katalyst\u2019s rescue craft has three robotic arms with grippers that will attempt to clamp onto any suitable part of the Swift observatory. Engineers came up with a design they say can handle a number of possibilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know there\u2019s a radiator on one of these side panels, but that was covered in paint 22 years ago before it launched, and it\u2019s had 22 years of ultraviolet exposure,\u201d the manager said. \u201cThe paint is likely to be cracking and peeling off, so that\u2019s not a great place to grab.\u201d<\/p>\n

The satellite\u2019s outer layers of insulation have been exposed to the harsh environment of space, including atomic oxygen. This can cause the insulation to crack like glass. NASA discovered this phenomenon on servicing missions to the Hubble Space Telescope.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as you initiate fracture on it, it will just propagate,\u201d the manager said. \u201cSo you have these plastics that now behave more like a glass and can shatter. It\u2019s weird.\u201d<\/p>\n

After launch, it will take several weeks for the rescue spacecraft to reach Swift. Katalyst\u2019s servicer will approach slowly, and sensors on the robotic arms will attempt to find edges to grab onto.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter what, we\u2019re going to learn a lot. We don\u2019t know exactly what configuration it is in,\u201d the manager said. \u201cWe don\u2019t know exactly which surfaces are grabbable\u2026 but that\u2019s why we\u2019re kind of engineering our systems to be as versatile and robust as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last Pegasus<\/h2>\n

Instead of choosing a well-oiled workhorse like SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 to launch the rescue mission, Katalyst selected the air-launched Pegasus XL, a rocket that hasn\u2019t flown since 2021.<\/p>\n

Pegasus was the world\u2019s first privately developed orbital launch vehicle. It has launched 45 times since 1990, but the Pegasus program is winding down. Northrop Grumman took over the program in 2018 after acquiring Orbital ATK, itself a follow-on to Orbital Sciences, the rocket\u2019s original developer.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

Using the Pegasus rocket for the Swift rescue mission might seem surprising, but a closer examination reveals a good reason for it. Swift flies close to the equator, swinging between 20 degrees north and south latitude on each orbit, to minimize time flying over the South Atlantic Anomaly, a weak spot in Earth\u2019s magnetic field where satellites are exposed to higher doses of damaging radiation. For Swift, this exposure could contaminate science observations.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In this photo from 2016, a Pegasus XL rocket falls away from its carrier aircraft moments before ignition to deliver a NASA research mission to low-Earth orbit.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n NASA\/Lori Losey<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

If launched on a Falcon 9, the rescue mission would require a dedicated ride from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to reach such an unusual orbit. It could not take advantage of SpaceX\u2019s lower-cost Transporter and Bandwagon rideshare missions that routinely deliver small satellites to higher-inclination orbits. And Katalyst\u2019s spacecraft is too heavy for Rocket Lab.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people think launch is a solved issue. They see how often that Falcon 9 flies. They see companies like Rocket Lab and Firefly coming online,\u201d Lee said. \u201cBut the reality of the situation is launch is a solved issue if you\u2019re able to fit into a Transporter or Bandwagon.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mission\u2019s $30 million budget includes the launch. Katalyst has not disclosed how much it is paying for the ride on Pegasus\u2014Northrop charged $28 million for a Pegasus launch in 2021\u2014but rocket motors were already built for one more Pegasus rocket. It\u2019s a safe bet that the company got a good deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cOut of the Cape, if we\u2019re going on a dedicated Falcon 9, that\u2019s like $65 or $70 million. So there was just no trade space. Pegasus was actually a really good option because it\u2019s built for this type of mission, going to unique inclinations, being able to be responsive, and then the payload capacity of it was perfect. They have up to 400 kilograms (880 pounds) to this orbit. That\u2019s exactly what we need. Falcon 9 would have been way overkill for something like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pegasus system has the advantage of being mobile. The rocket and its airborne launch platform will be assembled together in California, then flown to Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, about 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) north of the equator. There, the airplane will release Pegasus to begin its climb into space.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of sad that it\u2019s the last Pegasus because it\u2019s a really good architecture for things like this,\u201d Lee said. \u201cYou can imagine that there are going to be other use cases.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BROOMFIELD, Colorado\u2014One of NASA\u2019s oldest astronomy missions, the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, has been out of action for more than a month as scientists await the arrival of a pioneering robotic rescue mission. The 21-year-old spacecraft is falling out of orbit, and NASA officials believe it\u2019s worth saving\u2014for the right price. Swift is not a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1661,1690,291,6868,190,2247,756],"class_list":["post-44052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-astronomy","tag-astrophysics","tag-commercial-space","tag-katalyst-space","tag-nasa","tag-satellite-servicing","tag-swift"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44052"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}