A commercial mission to boost NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory concluded without raising the spacecraft’s orbit, but the agency and industry vendor Katalyst Space have gained valuable experience that will benefit future in-space servicing programs. “From the beginning, this was a high-risk, high-reward mission,” said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Due to an ongoing commercial spacecraft attitude control issue, NASA and Katalyst Space announced Wednesday the LINK spacecraft will not capture or boost an agency satellite to a higher altitude to extend its science mission as planned. However, LINK still will attempt to conduct rendezvous and proximity operations with NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory to
