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Over the remote Pacific Ocean, about halfway between Hawaii and northernmost Australia, an air-launched rocket blasted into space on Independence Day weekend to launch a search for a near-falling NASA space satellite.
The effort to rescue NASA’s Swift satellite is the first mission of its kind. NASA invited commercial companies less than a year ago to describe how to quickly design and launch a small satellite to connect with the Swift spacecraft and raise its altitude to land in a few months.
Katalyst Space Technologies has responded with the best. NASA awarded the company a contract last September to build and launch the Swift rescue mission. After just over nine months, the nearly half-ton Katalyst Link satellite is well on its way. For anyone who follows commercial space, building, testing, and launching a first-of-its-kind satellite of its size in less than a year is a huge achievement; it usually takes several years.
