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 closer approach during its remaining orbital operations. Katalyst instead used the encounter to test propulsion, robotic systems and rendezvous operations before the spacecraft’s expected atmospheric reentry, estimated at two to three weeks from that announcement.
During the technology-demonstration phase, Katalyst raised LINK’s orbit and conducted maneuvers to match Swift’s orbital plane. The company simultaneously fired all three of LINK’s xenon-fueled electric propulsion thrusters and deployed the spacecraft’s three robotic arms, which had been designed to grapple Swift before lifting the observatory into a more sustainable orbit.
The demonstrations provided flight data for future satellite-servicing missions, but they did not address the central objective of preventing Swift’s accelerating orbital decay. NASA expects the observatory to reenter Earth’s atmosphere later in 2026 without intervention.
LINK launched July 3 aboard a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket from Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific Ocean. Controllers established communications and began commissioning the spacecraft, but LINK developed an attitude-control anomaly roughly three weeks after launch and began tumbling.
NASA and Katalyst worked to stabilize the spacecraft, but the anomaly made close-range capture operations too risky. On August 19, the partners formally abandoned plans for LINK to grapple and boost Swift, while retaining a reduced mission focused on rendezvous, proximity operations and hardware demonstrations.
The original Swift Boost mission had been developed on an unusually compressed schedule. NASA awarded Katalyst the servicing contract in September 2025, giving the Arizona-based company less than a year to design, manufacture, test, launch and operate a spacecraft capable of meeting, capturing and repositioning an unprepared target.
Swift has no propulsion system to counter atmospheric drag. Increased solar activity heated and expanded Earth’s upper atmosphere, increasing drag at the observatory’s altitude and causing its orbit to decay faster than previously forecast. LINK was intended to provide the external propulsion needed to raise the telescope without requiring modifications to the spacecraft.
Swift was launched in November 2004 for a two-year prime mission and has remained operational for more than two decades. The observatory studies gamma-ray bursts and other rapidly changing high-energy phenomena, including supernovas, black-hole activity and fast radio bursts. Its ability to detect transient events, reposition rapidly and distribute alerts enables coordinated observations by telescopes on Earth and in space.
NASA placed Swift in a low-drag configuration earlier in 2026 while awaiting LINK. The agency shut down the X-Ray Telescope and Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope in February and halted use of the Burst Alert Telescope in April, allowing the solar arrays to be positioned to reduce atmospheric resistance.
After the boost attempt was canceled, controllers restarted the X-Ray Telescope and Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope on August 26 to collect additional science before reentry. The Burst Alert Telescope remained offline at the end of August, although the mission team was working to return it to data collection.
NASA previously estimated that low-drag operations would keep Swift above an altitude of 300 kilometers until October. Operations become increasingly difficult below that threshold as atmospheric drag intensifies and the rate of orbital decay accelerates. Resuming science observations was expected to bring Swift to that altitude within one to two months.
LINK’s inability to capture Swift leaves both spacecraft approaching the end of their missions. Katalyst’s remaining priority is to recover as much engineering data as possible from LINK’s propulsion, robotic-arm and proximity-operations tests before it reenters, while NASA continues operating Swift’s available instruments for as long as orbital and power conditions permit.
Cover image: This photo provided by Katalyst Space shows a solar panel on Katalyst Space Technologies’ Link robotic servicing spacecraft in orbit on Aug. 24, 2026. (Katalyst Space via AP)
