Katalyst Space robot to launch on mission to save NASA’s Swift space observatory

[00:00:00]And while some of you out there might want to talk about Swift the singer, I just want to talk about Swift the telescope. Did you know that right now there is something called the NASA Swift space observatory that is in a fight of its life with Earth's gravity and there's this bold rescue mission in overdrive right now to basically build this satellite robot to go up there to save it. Enter Catalyst Space. It's a startup working with NASA to try to rescue Swift and no, they're not going to to launch it on a rocket into space just like everybody else does. No, no, no. They're going to be using something a little bit more like this.

[00:00:37]>> Three.

[00:00:38]>> Two.

[00:00:39]>> One.

[00:00:40]>> Drop.

[00:00:40]>> Go for release.

[00:00:43]>> Pegasus is away.

[00:00:44]>> And drop. Pegasus is away.

[00:00:50]>> Pegasus, look at that. They're going to be putting it on one of those. They're going to put their little robotic rescuer in that thing, which is effectively a missile underneath a NASA plane, shooting that thing straight into orbit. When Link does come out of its protective shell, it will grab Swift, then it will use its small thrusters to push the telescope to a higher orbit, saving its life from a very, very fiery re-entry. You know how re-entries go.

[00:01:17]Joining us now is CEO of Catalyst Space, Gong Lee.

[00:01:22]Great to see you. Thank you so much for being with us.

[00:01:25]So, the countdown clock is getting very, very close for you guys right now and on a Pegasus to boot. I got to ask, why the Pegasus over a traditional rocket like Falcon 9 or Electron?

[00:01:40]>> Gadi, it's it's great to be here. Like you said, we are within 100 hours of launching this historic mission where we're sending the space robot up to go grapple a telescope in lower Earth orbit and that is not a made up sci-fi term.

[00:01:54]And to your point, we're launching off an air-launched Pegasus to go make this happen. All of this is about speed. We had 9 months from contract award in September of 2025 to launch in June of 2026 so that we could give Swift a fighting chance to be able to boost its orbit and continue its science mission.

[00:02:13]The Pegasus rocket was the perfect choice to be able to reach the orbit on the timeline that we needed.

[00:02:19]>> The Pegasus rocket it is so interesting and I am very bummed that this is going to be its swan song but again that 9 months that timeline is pretty wild.

[00:02:30]Like how did you guys build an entire spacecraft and get it ready for launch within 9 months?

[00:02:40]>> Absolutely. This is not just a traditional spacecraft either. Again, 9 months to design, build, integrate and launch a space robot. This is very very different than a normal satellite. It has robot arms, it has thrusters being able to maneuver, it has grippers to be able to grab on to other satellites after they're already in space and then it also has the power to push around a multi-ton asset after it's already in space as well. So very unique and if you think about engineering and you think about the normal engineering process, something like this might take 5 years or more using traditional aerospace processes and so we essentially had to reinvent the wheel to be able to go again from 9 months in September of 2025 in June of 2026 to launch, nothing like this has ever been been done before and it's just really incredible to see what we've been able to accomplish to this point.

[00:03:34]>> Yeah, and you know, when you look at this and you start to think of all the implications and all the other use cases that something like this could be used for in the next 5 10 years. Look, that's going to be a different conversation. We're going to have to have you back because that's a a whole other can of worms but when it comes to Swift, how did Swift get into this trouble and and why is saving Swift so important?

[00:04:01]>> Absolutely. Swift is what we like to jokingly call the little brother to Hubble, but it has a very important science experiment and science mission as well. It's studying gamma ray burst detections, helping us understand the basic science of the universe and the cosmos. It's also a $500 million government asset. So, it's very much worth saving. NASA issued us this $30 million contract, again, to go out and do this mission. That's a 16 to 1 ratio in terms of ROI, and I think that's incredible because if you zoom out and think about the landscape, the US and the space industry at large has gotten very good at putting things into space.

[00:04:42]Like you said, SpaceX is an American company launching all the time, but it turns out that what you do in space matters just as much, and this is where our robotics come into play as well.

[00:04:53]NASA has leaned forward to take advantage of this type of technology so that they can extend its life, extend the science mission of Swift to continue to return those investments along the way.

[00:05:05]>> Gagan Healy of Catalyst Space, thank you so very much for joining us and Godspeed to Little Link. We'll be checking back with you and all watching with bated breath. Thank you.

[00:05:15]>> We thank you for watching, and remember, stay updated on breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or watch live on our YouTube channel.