Katalyst Space struggles to stabilize satellite rescuing NASA's Swift observatory

Katalyst Space Technologies built the Link satellite to rendezvous with NASA's $500 million Swift gamma‑ray observatory and boost its orbit before atmospheric re‑entry. Launched on July 3, Link performed as planned until a recent pass when it began tumbling, losing attitude control as two of its three reaction wheels stopped and cold‑gas thrusters malfunctioned.

Engineers discovered the spin could be countered by gimbaling the spacecraft’s xenon‑fueled electric thrusters, originally intended for orbit‑raising, to provide limited attitude control. The team has begun using these thrusters to gradually reduce the spin while keeping power, plasma engines, and capture hardware functional. Swift itself lost contact during the incident but performed an automatic reset that restored telemetry, though overheating damaged its control circuitry. Katalyst continues to work on stabilizing Link and completing the rescue mission before Swift’s orbit decays further.