Welp. Katalyst Still Must Power-Up, And Capture The Swift Observatory -- Then "Push It, Push It REAL Good!" -- Up To A More Stable Orbit...

Well, the issue was just a needed software update, for the Pegasus XL under-wing rocket. The team made orbit very early this morning, as we all slept.

Here's all that good news -- still much to do, on the in-orbit "punch list" -- to eventually stabilize Swift:

. . .A mission to raise the altitude of NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is underway after launching at 8:36 p.m. Marshall Islands Time (4:36 a.m. EDT), Friday, July 3, from Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific Ocean.

LINK, a robotic servicing spacecraft built by Katalyst Space, launched into orbit on a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket, which was deployed by the company’s Stargazer, a modified L-1011 aircraft, at an altitude of about 40,000 feet.

Our planet’s atmosphere creates drag for spacecraft in low Earth orbit, gradually reducing their altitude if they don’t have propulsion systems to maintain their positions. Recent solar activity magnified this effect on Swift, and its orbit decayed faster than anticipated. . . .

In September, NASA contracted Katalyst to boost Swift. The company needed to design, build, test, and launch LINK and meet, grab, and lift Swift in less than a year. . . .

Do stay tuned -- and do celebrate the fragile, unlikely dream. . . that is the UNITED States of America. We all know that it is not the garish, under-attended, amateurish nonsense Trump has on his outer lawn, on this day -- and tomorrow. It is (among other things) the ingenuity of the above mission -- from concept, to orbit -- in under an elapsed year. Onward.

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