Overview
- NASA awarded Katalyst a $30 million SBIR Phase 3 fixed‑price contract in September to carry out the Swift reboost, with the company responsible for securing the launch.
- Katalyst announced on Nov. 19 that Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus XL will launch the Link servicing spacecraft by mid‑2026 from the Reagan Test Site at Kwajalein using the L‑1011 Stargazer, with one Pegasus in storage following its last flight in 2021.
- The low ~20.6–21° inclination of Swift’s orbit drove the choice, as reaching that plane from Cape Canaveral or Vandenberg would demand excessive propellant, while Pegasus’s air‑launch profile offers access within cost and schedule constraints.
- Katalyst’s Link vehicle is being developed to autonomously rendezvous with Swift, attach via a custom robotic capture mechanism, and boost the observatory to a more stable orbit.
- Katalyst cites a roughly 50% chance of uncontrolled reentry by mid‑2026 and about 90% by year’s end without intervention, and a successful mission would reportedly be the first commercial robotic capture of an uncrewed U.S. government satellite.