The first-of-its-kind mission to raise the orbit of NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is set to launch no earlier than Thursday, July 2 at 5:09 a.m. EDT (9:09 p.m. UTC+12), from Kwajalein Atoll, part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. A robotic service spacecraft called LINK, built by Katalyst Space, will enter orbit on a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket attached to the belly of the company’s Stargazer aircraft, shown here in this photograph from the evening of Tuesday, June 16, 2026.

After launch, LINK will attempt to find, grab and slowly raise Swift’s altitude over several months, preventing it from re-entering Earth’s atmosphere later this year. If this daring mission is successful, it will be the first time a commercial robotic mission captures a NASA spacecraft that is unmanned and not originally designed for service in space.

Follow Swift’s blog to learn more about the mission.

Image credit: NASA/Ron Beard