Overview
- The Link spacecraft, which launched July 3 on a Pegasus XL air-launched rocket, began tumbling weeks into its fast‑paced mission to rendezvous with the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory.
- Two of Link’s three reaction wheels stopped and some cold‑gas thrusters failed, creating a multi‑axis spin that interrupted steady communications and complicated attitude control.
- Mission teams have reduced the rotation and report the vehicle remains power‑positive with intermittent communications, and the servicer’s robotics hardware and three xenon electric thrusters appear available for recovery use.
- Engineers are using the thrusters’ two‑axis gimbal to steer plasma/xenon exhaust for slow, deliberate de‑spin maneuvers and are testing software workarounds to replace the failed pointing systems.
- The mission faces a shrinking window of a few months before Swift’s orbit decays too far for a safe grapple, and the outcome will shape the case for low‑cost commercial on‑orbit servicing under a roughly $30 million NASA contract.