By Joey Roulette and Steve Gorman

WASHINGTON, July 3 (Reuters) – NASA and Arizona-based startup Katalyst launched a robotic spacecraft over the Pacific on Thursday on a mission to rescue an aging NASA satellite observatory while demonstrating a new orbital grappling technology at the center of the U.S.-China space race.

The half-ton spacecraft ‌called LINK was specially built to save the prized $500 million Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory by latching onto the crippled satellite and taking it to a higher, ‌sustainable orbit, potentially extending its mission by years.

The observatory, also known as SWIFT, has no onboard propulsion capabilities and would otherwise drift naturally toward Earth and burn up in the atmosphere as soon as later this ​year.

Katalyst Space Technologies, headquartered in Flagstaff, Arizona, said it designed, constructed and tested the LINK vehicle on an unprecedented nine-month production schedule, under a $30 million NASA contract.

Some 40,000 feet (12,200 m) over the Pacific at 1:36 a.m. PDT (0836 GMT), a Northrop Grumman Pegasus rocket with LINK tucked into its cargo bay was released from the belly of a Lockheed TriStar jetliner and then soared into space, Katalyst said.

The mission had been delayed by weather and a brief technical snag with the launch vehicle.

The launch plane had taken off headed east from a U.S. air base on the tiny ‌Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

The spacecraft is expected to ⁠jettison from the rocket as it reaches low-Earth orbit, heading off on a month-long voyage to the vicinity of NASA’s orbiting observatory, which has been studying distant galaxies and black holes since 2004.

By late July, if all goes according to plan, LINK will fly to within roughly ⁠6 miles (9.6 km) of the languishing observatory before initiating its final approach and “proximity operations.”

The autonomous spacecraft, equipped with three sets of thrusters and five sensor systems, is then expected to take another week to rendezvous with SWIFT and use its three robot arms, each fitted with hand-like grippers, to gently grab hold of the satellite.

Once LINK has firmly grasped the observatory, it should take another 60 ​days ​to tow it to its target altitude about 373 miles (600 km) above Earth, double the height it ​will have fallen to just before rescue, according to Katalyst.

With no ‌onboard propulsion of its own, SWIFT faced a 90% chance of falling completely out of orbit later this year due to the mounting drag of atmospheric friction.

MISSION OF HISTORIC PROPORTIONS

The robot spacecraft is expected to complete its primary mission of satellite recovery with enough propellant left over to practice additional close-proximity maneuvers using SWIFT as a stationary dance partner in orbit.

The SWIFT orbital boost effort, the first U.S. mission of its kind, is being closely watched as a trial run of a key satellite-maintenance technology with potential dual-use military applications, representing some of the latest advances propelled by U.S.-China geopolitical rivalry.

“The U.S. Space Command cares a lot about this, because ultimately this is a core element of space superiority,” Katalyst CEO ‌Ghonhee Lee told Reuters in a recent interview.

China last year demonstrated two satellites orbiting in close ​proximity, following a 2022 test in which one Chinese satellite grappled onto and yanked another into a different ​orbit – alarming U.S. officials who said China could employ such tactics on American ​spacecraft.

The Pentagon has been seeking similar capabilities, though many of its space maneuvering efforts are shrouded in secrecy.

Lee hailed the LINK mission as historic, ‌citing its rapid development schedule and return on investment – $30 million in ​taxpayer dollars to extend the life of a ​valuable $500 million scientific asset.

“A normal mission like this might have taken five years to put together, and we did it in under a year,” he said. “You’re showing that we can apply this to other national assets, other commercial assets, and then as a result we end up with a lot more flexibility and sustainability ​in space.”

Lee said the company envisions hundreds of robot spacecraft by ‌the end of the decade “constantly maneuvering between lower Earth orbit and the moon, building things, moving things.”

“And that’s something that NASA, as well as other ​parts of the government, can take advantage of to buy things as a service rather than having to reinvent the wheel each time,” he said.

(Reporting ​by Joey Roulette in Washington; Additional reporting and writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles)