{"id":46582,"date":"2026-07-30T23:42:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T15:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/katalyst-space-encounters-attitude-control-issues-with-link-spacecraft\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T23:42:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T15:42:15","slug":"katalyst-space-encounters-attitude-control-issues-with-link-spacecraft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/katalyst-space-encounters-attitude-control-issues-with-link-spacecraft\/","title":{"rendered":"Katalyst Space Encounters Attitude Control Issues With Link Spacecraft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--[CDATA[<p--><b>Katalyst Space<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has run into technical issues with attitude control on the recently launched LINK spacecraft, on a mission to rescue <\/span><b>NASA<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2019s Swift Observatory. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Katalyst issued an update on Tuesday, saying that two of three reaction wheels on the spacecraft are non-functional and partial reaction control system (RCS) functionality. The spacecraft has been in a multi-axis spin, which led to temporary loss of communications and a bus reset. The spacecraft\u2019s other subsystems are functioning correctly. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The team is working to stabilize the space with electric propulsion burns. They update the guidance, navigation, and control schemes and verify the updated schemes with end-to-end simulation and ground testing. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Katalyst still plans to attempt rendezvous proximity operations (RPO) and capture the Swift spacecraft. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhile these technical issues require a revised approach, our team is working around the clock alongside our NASA partners. The mission remains active and we continue to believe that with these changes, LINK has a viable path to rendezvous with Swift,\u201d Katalys said <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in the update<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NASA tapped Katalyst for the rescue mission with a $30 million contract less than a year ago in a bid to \u201crace against the clock\u201d to reboost the Swift Observatory before it re-enters Earth\u2019s atmosphere. The team designed, built, tested, and integrated the robotic spacecraft in less than a year. Northrop Grumman launched the spacecraft in an <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">air-launched Pegasus mission<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on July 2. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>The post Katalyst Space Encounters Attitude Control Issues With Link Spacecraft appeared first on Via Satellite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Katalyst Space has run into technical issues with attitude control on the recently launched LINK spacecraft, on a mission to rescue NASA\u2019s Swift Observatory. Katalyst issued an update on Tuesday, saying that two of three reaction wheels on the spacecraft are non-functional and partial reaction control system (RCS) functionality. The spacecraft has been in a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"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":[],"class_list":["post-46582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46582"}],"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=46582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46582\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}