A industrial mission to spice up NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory concluded with out elevating the spacecraft’s orbit, however the company and business vendor Katalyst Area have gained helpful expertise that may profit future in-space servicing applications.
“From the start, this was a high-risk, high-reward mission,” mentioned Shawn Domagal-Goldman, Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “With out intervention, Swift was going to re-enter the ambiance by yr’s finish. And whereas we’ll be unhappy to see Swift’s mission come to a detailed, we knew this increase effort could be helpful to the company on a number of ranges — advancing U.S. spacecraft servicing know-how, difficult us to fulfill unprecedented mission timelines, and testing how we function satellites to increase their time in low Earth orbit. We’re very pleased with how shortly this staff bought to this point, and we’re capturing classes realized to make sure we’re able to go even farther.”
Swift, which launched in November 2004, was designed to check gamma-ray bursts, probably the most highly effective explosions within the cosmos.
Over the past twenty years, the observatory has revolutionized our understanding of how the universe works, from finding out comets and asteroids in our personal photo voltaic system and numerous forms of cosmic explosions to flares from black holes in distant galaxies.
All spacecraft in low Earth orbit expertise drag from our planet’s ambiance. In the event that they don’t have propulsion programs, this drag progressively reduces their altitudes. A interval of elevated photo voltaic exercise magnified this impact on Swift.
After deciding to research the potential for a lift try, NASA had just a few months to problem a name for proposals by means of its Middle of Excellence for Collaborative Engineering and fund design idea research by means of the company’s Small Enterprise Innovation Analysis program.
In September 2025, NASA contracted Katalyst, based mostly in Flagstaff, Arizona, to aim the mission. The corporate had round one yr to design, construct, take a look at, and launch a satellite tv for pc that will then meet, seize, and carry Swift.
The LINK spacecraft took off from Kwajalein Atoll within the Republic of the Marshall Islands in July aboard a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket. Katalyst chosen the Pegasus as the perfect launch possibility for reaching the observatory on the mission’s condensed timeline, based mostly on the mission’s orbital and programmatic wants.
After efficiently reaching house and performing preliminary spacecraft checkouts, LINK started experiencing intermittent communications losses and developed points with its orientation management.
Following a interval of around-the-clock troubleshooting from each groups, NASA and Katalyst agreed to reduce the mission. LINK would now not try to seize or increase Swift however as a substitute try to carry out a collection of know-how demonstrations that will advance the capabilities of the U.S. industrial servicing business.
These included exercising the spacecraft’s xenon-powered propulsion system and three robotic arms, which had been designed to offer flexibility concerning the place LINK might safely grapple Swift. NASA formally concluded the company’s involvement in LINK’s mission on Sept. 3. The spacecraft re-entered the ambiance on Sept. 25.
“LINK was constructed to tackle an issue that didn’t have a straightforward resolution,” mentioned Ghonhee Lee, CEO of Katalyst Area. “This was an formidable mission on an aggressive timeline. Whereas we didn’t accomplish each goal we got down to obtain, in lower than a yr we went from mission idea to launching and working the primary industrial house robotic. It is a basis we are able to construct on.”
Science missions like Swift take years to develop after which function in orbit for many years. For the Swift increase, nevertheless, a very powerful issue was the timeline. All decision-making and threat acceptance hinged on predictions exhibiting the observatory sinking to the purpose of no return — an altitude of round 185 miles (300 kilometers) — in fall 2026. As such, the increase mission required a brand new type of agile undertaking administration for NASA.
Swift staff members in SSMO (Area Science Mission Operations) at NASA’s Goddard Area Flight Middle in Greenbelt, Maryland, labored with Katalyst to develop milestones and approval processes that gave the mission the perfect likelihood of success whereas being versatile sufficient to maneuver shortly towards launch.
Each teams obtained helpful enter and suggestions from NASA’s Engineering and Security Middle when tackling questions and points that arose throughout integration and testing.
“Katalyst was dedicated to leveraging NASA’s deep expertise to present themselves the absolute best likelihood of efficiently attaining the unprecedented problem we gave them,” mentioned Russell Carpenter, undertaking supervisor in SSMO at NASA Goddard “Missions like these, the place public-private groups work tenaciously to beat obstacles, are an inspiration to the world, reminding us that striving for the close to unattainable brings out what is phenomenal in all of us.”
Whereas groups at NASA and Katalyst had been racing to get LINK prepared on the bottom, flight controllers in Swift’s Mission Operations Middle, situated at Penn State in College Park in Pennsylvania, had been making an attempt to maintain Swift above the important altitude for so long as doable. Under it, any increase try would develop into more and more tough.
Throughout regular operations, the Penn State staff sends a plan to Swift that tells the observatory which cosmic objects and occasions to watch every day.
In December 2025, nevertheless, the controllers began swapping round 25% of those science targets for factors on the sky that will reduce drag when Swift was educated on them. By February, the staff had converted to this method completely.
“Although Swift was not executing pointed science observations from mid-February to late August, we nonetheless continued Penn State’s historical past of modern house analysis and operations, pioneering new strategies to reduce drag skilled by the spacecraft,” mentioned John Nousek, the mission director and professor of astronomy and astrophysics within the college’s Eberly School of Science. “These adjustments purchased helpful time for the increase mission and could be carried ahead for future NASA missions.”
The staff additionally couldn’t level too near Earth, the Moon, or the Solar, because the brightness of all three might overheat and harm the observatory’s devices. Pointing Swift in probably the most streamlined place additionally tilted it too near the ambiance, the place particles might collide with the telescopes and have an effect on future observations. The staff struck a stability that managed to take care of Swift’s altitude above the important threshold for a number of months.
“We’re grateful to all our collaborators for the unbelievable period of time and dedication they’ve put into the increase mission,” mentioned S. Bradley Cenko, Swift’s principal investigator at NASA Goddard. “When Neil Gehrels, Swift’s namesake, designed the observatory, nothing prefer it had ever launched. He would have celebrated that this increase effort was a part of Swift’s legacy, that it allowed NASA to strive one thing new and daring although the result wasn’t assured. That’s how we discover the universe — as a staff, studying from one another, continuously pushing ahead.”