A National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) telescope in Earth’s orbit is gradually descending, facing about a 90 per cent likelihood of uncontrolled re-entry by late 2026. To mitigate this risk and prolong the observatory’s mission, NASA has enlisted an Arizona-based aerospace startup to conduct a rescue effort.
Katalyst Space Technologies, headquartered in Flagstaff, has been awarded $30 million by NASA to boost the orbit of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. Katalyst is building a spacecraft called LINK, which is intended to autonomously rendezvous with Swift and reposition it into a more stable orbit. Under the contract, Katalyst has less than eight months to launch LINK and perform the rescue, with a target deadline of June 2026. According to a company statement, the mission will use a rocket that is released from an aircraft.
The Swift observatory was launched in 2004 to study gamma-ray bursts, some of the most powerful explosions in the known universe. Over its roughly 20 years in low-Earth orbit, Swift’s altitude has gradually declined – a common fate for satellites – but recent increases in solar activity have boosted atmospheric drag, accelerating its orbital decay.
As Swift descends, the increasing atmospheric resistance raises the risk of re-entry. While Swift would likely disintegrate during re-entry and pose no threat to people or property on Earth, NASA and Katalyst aim to extend its operational life.
Katalyst has chosen Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus XL rocket for the recovery mission. This will mark Pegasus’s first launch in several years. The Pegasus rocket is air-launched: it is dropped from a carrier aircraft at around 39,000 feet (approximately 12,000 meters), free-falls for a few seconds, then ignites its engines to reach orbit. According to Katalyst, Pegasus is uniquely suited for this mission because of the tight timeline, the cost constraints, and Swift’s orbital inclination.
A key challenge for the mission is Swift’s orbit: it is inclined at about 20.6 degrees, a choice made to avoid the South Atlantic Anomaly – a region of weak magnetic field that increases radiation risk. Kieran Wilson, Vice President (Technology), Katalyst, has discussed in interviews that reaching that orbit from conventional ground-based launch sites would require a lot of fuel, but Pegasus’s air-launch capability helps mitigate that constraint.
After launch, LINK will perform precise rendezvous proximity operations (RPO) to approach Swift. Since Swift was not designed for servicing, it has no docking ports or grappling fixtures. Therefore, LINK will use a custom robotic capture mechanism to attach itself safely and then perform the orbital boost.
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If the mission is successful, it will show NASA a vital new capacity in addition to prolonging the life of an extremely valuable research satellite.This could be a game-changer for managing ageing satellites in low-Earth orbit.
