A bold satellite rescue mission came together in record time, but will it work?

Link is the second space mission developed by Catalyst, following a technology demonstration launched in 2024 by Atmos Space, which Catalyst acquired last year.

“When we started the program, I think the biggest risk everyone recognized was that if we weren’t ready to launch on time, Swift would fall faster than we could get up. We’ve been able to address that risk by building, testing, and getting ready to operate the spacecraft over the last few months,” Wilson said. “So I think the bulk of the broader concern has gone away. Now, there’s a lot of risk in the program. We still have to get the spacecraft into orbit and successfully operate the spacecraft there, and as we’ve all seen before, that’s a very challenging thing to do.”

It also helped that Northrop Grumman had all the parts for the Pegasus XL rocket in storage. The previous two Pegasus rockets were originally ordered by Stratolaunch, a company originally owned by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Stratolaunch abandoned the rockets after Allen’s death in 2018, and Northrop was free to sell them to other customers. It sold one to the Space Force in 2021 and another to Catalyst last year.

No matter what happens after Link’s launch, NASA and its partners believe they have written a new template for how to conduct a responsive space mission.

“Some people would call this the first robotic spacecraft of its kind that can go to an unprepared satellite and capture it,” said Robert Lamontagne, vice president of strategic partnerships at Catalyst. “This is first and foremost a commercial mission. It’s serving an operational, real-world purpose. It’s not just a demonstration, and we’re doing it as a service… It’s really a blueprint for commercial and government partnerships.”

“From a programmatics standpoint, I already consider it a success, just by the fact that we’re going to try it,” Domagal-Goldman said.