Commercial Mission to Boost the Swift Observatory

A mission to boost the orbit of the sinking Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is targeted to launch no earlier than Tuesday, June 30, at 10:17 p.m. UTC+12 (6:17 a.m. EDT), from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. LINK, a robotic servicing spacecraft built by American startup Katalyst Space for this mission to extend Swift’s science lifetime, will launch on a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket.

While there is no livestream available for launch, written updates will continue on the Swift blog. After LINK reaches orbit, the team’s first step is to acquire a signal confirming the solar panels have deployed and the power systems are working. The spacecraft will then go through several weeks of checkouts, a process called commissioning, during which controllers turn on and test systems.

With commissioning complete, LINK will maneuver toward Swift, collect and send images of the observatory to the ground for assessment, and begin a slow, careful rendezvous and capture that could take about a month.

Marshall Islands, Kwajalein Atoll

swift observatory, neil gehrels, link spacecraft, katalyst space, pegasus xl, kwajalein atoll, marshall islands, robotic servicing, orbital boost, rendezvous