Race against re-entry: Swift's would-be saviour straps itself to a rocket

NASA's sprint to save the Swift observatory has reached another milestone: Katalyst Space's LINK robotic servicing spacecraft is now installed atop its Pegasus XL launcher. The milestone came less than a year after the space agency awarded the rescue contract. The next step will be to attach the Pegasus XL to the Stargazer carrier aircraft (the last airworthy Lockheed L-1011 TriStar), which will carry it from NASA's Wallops facility to the Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific Ocean for launch. L