A daring satellite rescue mission comes together in the nick of time, but will it work?

Link is the second phase developed by Katalyst after a technology demonstration launched in 2024 by Atomos Space, a company Katalyst acquired last year.

“When we started the program, I think everyone realized that the biggest risk was that we weren’t ready to launch on time, that the Swift would fall faster than we could. We were able to eliminate this risk in the last few months by building, testing, and preparing to launch the ship,” said Wilson. “So I think that solves a big problem. Now, there’s a lot of risk left in the program. We still have to get the spacecraft on track and get the spacecraft there, and as we’ve seen before, that’s a very difficult thing to do.”

The Link spacecraft is powered by Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus XL rocket.

Credit: NASA/Ron Beard

It also helped that Northrop Grumman had all the parts for the Pegasus XL rocket in storage. The last two Pegasus rockets were ordered by Stratolaunch, a company owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Stratolaunch discontinued the rockets after Allen’s death in 2018, and Northrop had the right to sell them to other customers. It sold one to Space Force in 2021, and another to Katalyst last year.

Whatever happens after Link’s launch, NASA and its partners hope to set a new template for how to build a listening mission.

“Some would call it the first of its kind, a robotic spacecraft that can go and capture an unplanned satellite,” said Robert Lamontagne, vice president of strategic alliances at Katalyst. “It’s a commercial project, first and foremost. It’s doing work, real world purposes. It’s not just a show, and we’re doing this as a project… This is a business-government partnership.”

“Based on the schedule, I see this as a win already, because we’re going to try again,” Domagal-Goldman said.