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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/link_swift.jpg\")
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Artist\u2019s illustration of Katalyst\u2019s Link spacecraft (top) approaching NASA\u2019s Swift observatory (bottom).<\/p>\n
\n Credit:
\n Katalyst Space Technologies\n <\/p>\n
\n Artist\u2019s illustration of Katalyst\u2019s Link spacecraft (top) approaching NASA\u2019s Swift observatory (bottom).<\/p>\n
Credit:<\/p>\n
Katalyst Space Technologies<\/p>\n
Deadline looming<\/p>\n
There are a few things you should know about this venture. First, Swift was never designed to be captured or reboosted in orbit. Second, this mission is the first time Katalyst will attempt to dock with another satellite in space. And third, NASA gave Katalyst a daunting timetable of just nine months to build, test, and launch the rescue mission before Swift\u2019s altitude falls too low for a safe rendezvous.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is really technically ambitious,\u201d said Ghonhee Lee, founder and CEO of Katalyst.<\/p>\n
Launch is scheduled for June 1, and there\u2019s little margin for error. By late summer or early fall, Swift will slip below 200 miles (320 kilometers), too low for Katalyst to have confidence in controlling its spacecraft. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of drag with two big spacecraft docking together, \u201d Lee said. \u201cOriginally, we thought we had more time.\u201d<\/p>\n
NASA\u2019s goals are twofold: first, demonstrate an important capability for the future of space exploration, and second, save Swift from a fiery demise and continue its scientific observations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe realized that you can\u2019t get 100 percent guaranteed success on this,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n
When Ars visited Katalyst in late February, technicians were heads-down at work stations, soldering parts, assembling solar panels, and preparing components for environmental testing. For a traditional government space mission, a project might be at this stage of manufacturing years before reaching the launch pad.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not quite as mature as you would expect,\u201d one company official said. \u201cKeep in mind that we started this whole thing about five months ago, so we are making great progress by those standards.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But the Swift spacecraft will surely crash back to Earth, likely before the end of this year, without…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,141,145],"class_list":["post-353917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}