NASA Swift rescue slips to late August as Katalyst stabilizes LINK

Katalyst Space’s NASA Swift rescue attempt has been pushed to the end of August after its LINK spacecraft ran into control problems in orbit. The delay matters because NASA’s Swift observatory is losing altitude and cannot lift itself, leaving Katalyst with a narrowing window to prove LINK can stabilize, approach and move the satellite to a higher orbit.

Katalyst said engineers have reduced LINK’s rotation from 9 degrees per second to about 4 degrees per second using a thruster. Additional burns are planned, and Katalyst and NASA are working on a revised attitude controller designed around the spacecraft’s reduced capabilities.

The company said teams are assessing which spacecraft systems are still available and are running revised procedures through a simulator before attempting them on the vehicle in orbit. Katalyst’s current position is that rendezvous work has to wait. “We’re focused on stabilizing the spacecraft and restoring core system functionality,” the company said.

When will the NASA Swift rescue happen?

The rendezvous is now targeted for the end of August, according to Katalyst. That timing is conditional: LINK still has to be stabilized, NASA must sign off on the revised operating plan, and the vehicle has to reach Swift before the observatory falls too low for a practical orbit-raising attempt.

LINK’s planned mission is to approach Swift, inspect it, capture the observatory and carry it into a higher orbit. If it works, the maneuver could extend Swift’s operations by years, according to the mission plan described by Katalyst.

What happened to Katalyst’s LINK spacecraft?

LINK launched earlier this month, less than a year after NASA awarded Katalyst Space the contract for the rescue mission. During commissioning, the spacecraft developed problems and then began spinning over the weekend.

Katalyst previously said two of LINK’s three reaction wheels were not working. Reaction wheels are used to control spacecraft attitude without using propellant, so losing two of three limits the vehicle’s normal control authority. Katalyst said engineers were attempting to use electric propulsion thrusters to regain stability.

The revised controller is a sign that the original operating assumptions no longer fit the condition of the spacecraft. Katalyst has not said that LINK is recovered, only that the spin rate has been reduced and that more work is underway before any rendezvous attempt.

Why the Swift timeline is tight

Swift has operated far beyond its original mission, but its orbit is decaying. In January, nearly all NASA models projected that Swift would re-enter Earth’s atmosphere by summer 2026. NASA paused most science operations in February to extend the timeline.

More recent forecasts indicate Swift could fall below 300 kilometers around November. Below that altitude, raising the observatory’s orbit becomes harder, according to the mission timeline Katalyst is working against.

The next milestone is not the rendezvous itself. Katalyst first has to show it can control LINK well enough for NASA to approve the revised approach, grapple and orbit-raising plan. Until then, the late-August target remains dependent on a spacecraft recovery effort that is still in progress.

This story draws on original reporting from The Register.