NASA squeezed Treasury, vibe coded, and broke the mold in bid to save Swift - Ars Technica

An attempt to save NASA’s $500 million Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory from dropping out of orbit fell short, but the behind-the-scenes machinations required just to make a rescue possible deserve recognition, government and commercial space officials said in a recounting of the mission.

The rescue mission was developed by Katalyst Space Technologies, working under a $30 million contract awarded by NASA last September. NASA gave Katalyst nine months to build and launch a satellite to capture Swift flying some 200 miles above the Earth and boost it into a higher orbit.

Katalyst’s rescue spacecraft, known as Link, successfully launched July 3 and completed some of its initial checkouts before a malfunction caused it to spin out of control a few weeks later. NASA announced in August that Link would not be able to reach Swift as intended, and the rescue mission was aborted.

Still, designing and building a satellite, finding a rocket to launch it, and getting it to work in the harsh environment of space was a remarkable achievement. It would usually take several years to design, build, and test a satellite of Link’s size and complexity from scratch. Link weighed nearly a half-ton at launch, with electric thrusters, robotic arms, and large deployable solar arrays.

In the end, though, the Link satellite did not reach the Swift Observatory. The failure was bad news for scientists who rely on data from Swift, which has unique capabilities combining sensitivity to gamma rays, X-rays, and visible light with the agility to quickly turn toward astronomical targets. This has made Swift the go-to observatory for detecting gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful explosions in the Universe.

But Swift was going to fall out of orbit anyway. The spacecraft launched in 2004 and has far outlived its original design life. Swift does not have its own propulsion system, so it is unable to raise its orbit without help, leaving its fate at the mercy of aerodynamic drag in low-Earth orbit. Increased solar activity in recent years led to an increase in drag at Swift’s altitude, hastening its demise.

Racing against the clock

NASA and Katalyst officials are reviewing lessons learned from the mission to better prepare for the next time they need to rapidly call up a satellite rescue mission. First and foremost: Don’t wait until the last minute, said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, director of NASA’s astrophysics division, in a meeting last week of the National Academies’ Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics.

“The way that the timeline worked out, we didn’t have the ability to open up the doors fully to proposed solutions. We went with the teams we had on [contract] already. That is not a regret of the team we ended up with. It’s just I think I prefer the more open solutions.”

NASA commissioned 30-day studies from three teams —Katalyst, Starfish Space, and a joint proposal from Cambrian Works and Astroscale —in August 2025 to show how they planned to rescue Swift from destruction. The teams eligible for the studies were limited to partners NASA already had on contract for technology development. Under federal acquisition rules, it would have taken months or longer to start a brand new procurement and bring on a new provider.

The studies led to NASA’s selection in September 2025 of Katalyst to try to rescue Swift. Officials knew the odds were stacked against them.

Katalyst quickly put out orders to suppliers for all the parts required to assemble the Link spacecraft. In some cases, Katalyst found its suppliers couldn’t deliver in time, so it decided to build parts itself. Engineers also had to decide what to test on the spacecraft before handing it over to the launch provider, Northrop Grumman.

NASA’s strategy was to tell Katalyst what to do, but not how to do it.

“On paper, it was five requirements,” said Kieran Wilson, principal investigator for the Link mission at Katalyst. “In practice, it boiled down to do no harm and boost Swift. It was not specified how that was going to happen. That allowed us, in turn, to put engineering judgment ahead of exhaustive process, which allowed us to move much more quickly.”

Working inside a factory near Denver, Katalyst completed the Link spacecraft design at the end of last year and had the satellite ready for final prelaunch testing in April.