Race against re-entry: Swift's would-be saviour straps itself to a rocket
Katalyst's LINK spacecraft is go for integration, with a launch from Kwajalein expected within weeks
NASA's sprint to save the Swift observatory has reached another milestone: Katalyst Space's LINK robotic servicing spacecraft is now installed atop its Pegasus XL launcher.
The milestone came less than a year after the space agency awarded the rescue contract. The next step will be to attach the Pegasus XL to the Stargazer carrier aircraft (the last airworthy Lockheed L-1011 TriStar), which will carry it from NASA's Wallops facility to the Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific Ocean for launch.
Launch is expected to occur later this month.
The goal is to boost the Swift observatory, whose orbit is decaying faster than expected due to increased solar activity. Swift lacks thrusters to compensate for the problem, so a return to Earth in the coming months is inevitable without intervention. Engineers recently bought the vehicle a...
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