Katalyst Space

Katalyst builds robotic spacecraft that fly up to satellites nobody designed to be touched and grab them. LINK, the first, carries three robotic arms, electric thrusters and rendezvous sensors, and went from contract to launch in about nine months to do one job, catching NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, a telescope with no docking port, and pushing it into a higher orbit before drag brought it down. NEXUS, the follow-on, is meant to reposition, refuel and repair satellites in geostationary orbit from 2027.

Ghonhee Lee runs the company, founded in Flagstaff, Arizona, in 2020, and the bet is that docking with unprepared spacecraft becomes routine work for defence and civil customers. Katalyst bought Atomos Space and its Broomfield, Colorado factory in April 2025, won a $1.9 million US Space Command contract the following month, and in August 2025 NASA picked it to design the Swift rescue. In June 2026 it raised $12 million led by Geodesic Capital, and in August the Defense Innovation Unit chose it to develop a deorbit service for Space Development Agency satellites.

The rescue did not happen. LINK launched on a Pegasus XL from Kwajalein on 3 July 2026, lost two of its three reaction wheels during commissioning, and on 19 August NASA and Katalyst dropped the capture. The spacecraft kept flying as a demonstration, deployed its arms and closed to within 12 to 15 kilometres of Swift, which is expected to reenter later in 2026. An Ariane 6 ride is booked for the first geostationary mission in 2027.