Downward-looking view of two people in white clean suits standing next to a spacecraft at the bottom of a large black circular chamber. The spacecraft lies at center on a black circular plate crisscrossed with white lines. Around the perimeter of the chamber are ladders and various stands. Several small lamps near the chamber’s floor create pools of light. There is a door open to the outside of the chamber at about 1 o’clock.

Kieran Wilson, LINK’s principal investigator, and Hunter Robertson, a space systems engineer, both at Katalyst Space, stand next to their spacecraft inside the SES (Space Environment Simulator) at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., on April 17, 2026, ahead of thermal vacuum testing. During testing in the SES, LINK fired its three ion thrusters, deployed one of its three arms, and experienced space-like hot and cold temperatures.

Sophia Roberts/NASA

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Sophia Roberts/NASA

A valuable NASA satellite observatory is falling to Earth faster than scientists expected. It’s called the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, or “Swift” for short, and it can respond to celestial events much faster than its sky-gazing counterparts. To save Swift and test out a first-of-its-kind technology, NASA partnered with an Arizona-based startup to launch a refrigerator-sized robot, aptly named Link, into lower Earth orbit. That’s on its way right now to meet up with Swift to give it a boost.

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This episode was produced by Berly McCoy. It was edited by Rebecca Ramirez. Tyler Jones checked the facts. The audio engineer was Jimmy Keeley.