NASA, Partners Update Launch Date for Mission to Boost Swift

The launch of Katalyst’s robotic servicing spacecraft LINK, designed to boost the orbit of NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, is now targeting no earlier than 8:35 p.m. UTC+12 (4:35 a.m. EDT), Friday, July 3, on Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus XL rocket from Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands.

Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus team has completed its review of Thursday’s launch attempt and identified a software issue that affected Pegasus navigation performance, which prompted a launch abort before Pegasus was released from the L-1011 aircraft. The system worked as intended by safely stopping the sequence, and a software update has been implemented. The Pegasus rocket and L-1011 remain healthy. NASA will provide updates on the July 3 launch attempt on the agency’s Swift blog:

https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/swift