LINK-Swift: testing satellite servicing technology

NASA's Katalyst programme is running the LINK-Swift mission in the United States, a technology demonstration of rendezvous and proximity operations, attitude control and optical inspection of spacecraft. Capture and boost manoeuvres have been cancelled from the flight plan.

The mission's importance lies in building evidence that legacy spacecraft can be serviced in orbit. The open concerns are actuator resilience, fuel margin and graceful degradation if systems underperform.