Much More Nice Progress, On Katalyst / LINK Recovery Efforts -- But Still A Fair Distance To Traverse... With Software Updates, Coming Next Week...

This is an excellent team effort: NASA and Katalyst. But the road ahead will not be easy. The teams need to completely reconfigure the way the craft navigates, and orients itself, autonomously, in the "no up direction; no down, either" of. . . outer space.

It has been tumbling, without two of its three gyros, insofar as I understand the problem. But that multi-axis tumble has been slowed to about 1.5 degrees per second -- so it is manageable, and will maintain comms, and more importantly -- full solar battery power. But now it must right itself with all new software, before it might approach the aging Swift 'space 'scope. Here's the latest NASA authored blog entry:

. . .Teams are preparing to take the next major recovery steps for Katalyst Space’s robotic spacecraft LINK in orbit. During the last week, they’ve successfully reduced the spin of LINK, which is designed to boost NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory to a higher orbital altitude.

LINK originally was in a multi-axis spin rotating at about 9 degrees per second, which resulted in sporadic communications and impeded LINK’s progress toward Swift. Using a series of burns from one of LINK’s electric propulsion thrusters, the Katalyst team now has slowed that spin to about 1.47 degrees per second. Katalyst plans to keep LINK at that spin rate as it proceeds with next steps for the mission. This includes uploading a flight software update in the coming days with new attitude controllers designed to maintain LINK’s stability in its current configuration. These updates would allow LINK to begin maneuvering to align with Swift’s orbit. . . .

Now you know -- grinning, and keeping a good thought -- for all.

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