A commercial mission to boost NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory concluded without raising the spacecraft's orbit, NASA said in a Sept. 28, 2026, account of the effort. The agency and its industry vendor, Katalyst Space, said the attempt produced experience expected to benefit future in-space servicing programs.

Swift, launched in November 2004 to study gamma-ray bursts, faced a gradual decline in altitude from atmospheric drag, intensified by a period of increased solar activity. NASA predicted the observatory would sink to an altitude of around 185 miles (300 kilometers) in fall 2026, a point of no return. In September 2025, NASA contracted Flagstaff, Arizona-based Katalyst to design, build, test and launch a satellite within about one year.

Katalyst's LINK spacecraft launched in July 2026 aboard a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket from Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. After initial checkouts, LINK suffered intermittent communications losses and orientation-control problems. NASA and Katalyst scaled back the mission to technology demonstrations rather than grabbing or boosting Swift. NASA concluded its involvement on Sept. 3, and the spacecraft re-entered the atmosphere on Sept. 25. Meanwhile, flight controllers at Penn State adjusted Swift's pointing to limit drag and preserve altitude, work NASA said bought the boost mission valuable time.