NET June 1 – Launch Pegasus XL / Swift Rescue Mission

The mission aims for the LINK spacecraft to rendezvous with the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory craft and boost its orbit, under a Small Business Innovation Research Phase 3 contract between NASA and Katalyst Space Technologies.

Air launch-to-orbit is how the Pegasus XL operates. It can carry up to 443 kg to LEO after being released from a carrier aircraft at ~12,000 meter altitude.

The Swift Spacecraft observes gamma-ray bursts & their afterglows in gamma-ray, X-ray, ultraviolet and optical wavelengths from LEO. This multiwavelength craft was launched 11/20/2004.

Omelek Island hosts Space Launch Complex 1 (SLC-1), which saw the launch of Falcon 1 in 2008, the first privately developed liquid-fueled rocket to reach orbit. SpaceX initially planned to upgrade Omelek for Falcon 9 launches but did not. The site is currently not in active use for orbital launches. Other space missions, such as the HETE-2 satellite launch in 2000, have utilized launch infrastructure on Omelek Island rather than Bucholz Airfield on Kwajalein Island.