LINK Arrives at NASA Wallops, Begins Rocket Integration

The Horizontal Integration Facility at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on Friday, June 5, 2026, where Katalyst Space’s LINK robotic servicing spacecraft arrived ahead of integration onto a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket.

Credit: NASA/Ron Beard

Alt text: Exterior view of the Wallops Horizontal Integration Facility

Image description: The Horizontal Integration Facility, a large, white building with two tall doors. The left door is painted with a downward-draping American flag and the right door with the blue NASA logo. A car and two pickup trucks are in the parking lot in front of the building.

Personnel unload the LINK spacecraft, secured inside a protective cover, at NASA Wallops on Friday, June 5, 2026. From left to right: Marcy Mabry (CEO of Space Launch), Alton Morgan (FedEx driver), Steven Thomas (Northrop Grumman technician), Luke Scott (Northrop Grumman technician), and Nick Strauss (Katalyst Space assembly integration and test manager).

Credit: NASA/Ron Beard

Alt text: People unloading a large container from a truck

Image description: Four people stand behind a large truck. The door is open, and two more people stand inside, moving a large silver container toward the opening. The container is labeled with “Katalyst” in black letters. To the left of the truck is a large tower structure that extends out of frame.

Hunter Robertson, a Katalyst space systems engineer, prepares LINK to be attached to the Pegasus XL inside the Horizontal Integration Facility at NASA Wallops on Saturday, June 6, 2026.

Credit: NASA/Ron Beard

Alt text: An engineer works on a small spacecraft

Image description: Inside a large white high bay, a man in a blue static discharge jacket stands on a black platform and works on a small satellite. The satellite is silver with black solar panels folded against the near side. A black electronics cart with a laptop on top rests in front of the platform. Other large pieces of equipment are visible to the left and right inside the bay, and an American flag hangs on the far wall.

Sebastian Alexander, Katalyst’s lead environmental test engineer, provides a safety briefing to Northrop Grumman and Katalyst personnel ahead of lifting LINK off its shipping stand on Saturday, June 6, 2026.

Credit: NASA/Ron Beard

Alt text: People stand in a circle in front of a spacecraft.

Image description: A circle of people wearing blue electrostatic discharge jackets stand in front of a small spacecraft in a large white building. A man in the center of the circle on the far side holds a clipboard and gestures to the spacecraft.

Chad Smith, a Katalyst mechianical engineer, and Robertson remove the screws attaching LINK to its shipping stand on Saturday, June 6, 2026.

Credit: NASA/Ron Beard

Alt text: Two men work on the base of a spacecraft.

Image description: Inside a large white building, two men in blue electrostatic discharge jackets work on the base of a small silver spacecraft attached to a black stand. One crouches in front of the satellite, the other sits on the ground to the right. In the background are stacks of blue crates.

After removing LINK from its shipping stand, Katalyst and Northrop Grumman personnel attached it to a tilt cart, shown here on Monday, June 8, 2026. This piece of equipment held the spacecraft horizontally until it was removed and attached to the Pegasus XL rocket.

Credit: NASA/Ron Beard

Alt text: Side view of a spacecraft held horizontally on a cart

Image description: A small silver spacecraft is bolted to a metal frame so it parallels the floor. Two solar arrays are folded accordion-like top and bottom, and black robotic arms are folded against the side and face. The frame stands inside a large white building.

LINK’s position on the tilt cart provided engineers with access to nozzles of the spacecraft’s three xenon-fueled thrusters, shown here on Monday, June 8, 2026.

Credit: NASA/Ron Beard

Alt text: Bottom view of a spacecraft held horizontally on a cart

Image description: A small silver spacecraft is bolted to a metal frame so it parallels the floor. Two solar arrays are folded accordion-like top and bottom, and a black robotic arm rests against the side. The side of the frame has a hole in it, revealing three roughly triangular features (one at left partly obscured) arranged in a triangle on the bottom of the spacecraft. Each of the component triangles contains a circular structure that includes a thruster nozzle.

Robertson helps guide LINK as a crane hoists and moves it toward the top of the Pegasus XL on Monday, June 8, 2026.

Credit: NASA/Ron Beard

Alt text: Technicians move a spacecraft

Image description: Inside a large white building, two people in blue electrostatic discharge jackets guide a suspended spacecraft back toward the face of a rocket. One is on the far side of the spacecraft so the camera cannot see his face. The spacecraft is small and silver, with solar panels folded accordion-like top and bottom and black arms resting against its side and face. A third person in a blue jacket is out of focus in the foreground.

Smith and Robertson continue guiding LINK back toward the Pegasus XL while Northrop Grumman’s Scott Wells, the rocket’s operations manager, observes on Monday, June 8, 2026.

Credit: NASA/Ron Beard

Alt text: Two people handle a suspended satellite.

Image description: Two people in blue elctrostatic discharge jackets stand on either side of a small silver satellilte suspended by a crane inside a large white building. A third person watches.

The gap between LINK and the Pegasus XL closes under the watchful eye of Northrop Grumman’s Frank Lopez, a quality assurance engineer, on Monday, June 8, 2026.

Credit: NASA/Ron Beard

Alt text: A silver and black cylinder with a small gap in between

Image description: A silver cylinder, the aft end of the LINK satellite, approaches a black cylinder, the top of the Pegasus XL rocket. Behind them, visible in the gap in between, is an out-of-focus man wearing a blue electrostatic discharge jacket.

Robertson and Wells work to attach LINK to the Pegasus XL on Monday, June 8, 2026.

Credit: NASA/Ron Beard

Alt text: Two men work on a satellite

Image description: Two men in electrostatic discharge jackets work on a small silver satellite. The man on the left wears black gloves and holds the satellite in place. The man on the right looks at where the satellite is abutting the front of a rocket.

Watch to see how Katalyst and Northrop Grumman prepared LINK for integration with a Pegasus XL rocket. Versions with and without ambient sound are available.

Credit: NASA/Ron Beard

0:01 Still shots of the front gate of NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia

0:12 Pan across the parking lot and front of Wallops’ Horizontal Integration Facility as the truck carrying LINK arrives.

0:21 Still shots of the facility

0:33 Scott Wells, a Pegasus XL operations manager for Northrop Grumman, works on the inside of the rocket through an open panel.

0:48 Northrop Grumman’s Frank Lopez, a quality assurance engineer, and Isabella Valero, an integration and testing engineer, examine the rocket.

0:52 Wells walks past the front of the rocket.

0:57 Northrop Grumman’s Mark McManus, a Pegasus XL operations manager, examines the inside of the rocket through an open panel.

1:01 Still shot of the side of the rocket with the Northrop Grumman and Katalyst logos

1:06 Christian Amey, a spectrum manager for NASA Wallops, operates equipment beside the rocket.

1:12 A wider shot of Amey, where a cluster of people look at a bank of computers to his right

1:19 Wells works on the rocket through an open panel under the wing.

1:28 Lopez works on the rocket.

1:34 Valero touches up the paint on the side of the rocket.

1:41 Close ups of the “in memory of” names painted on the side of the rocket — Northrop Grumman’s Paul Baumgartner, Dan Rovner, Karl Seelandt, and Steve Gunn

2:02 A forklift pulls up to a truck to remove LINK.

2:06 Katalyst’s Will Kay, Isabella Katzman, and Hunter Robertson remove a protective covering from the LINK spacecraft inside the building.

2:23 Katzman, LINK principal investigator Kieran Wilson, Kay, and Robertson examine the spacecraft.

2:29 Robertson, Katzman, Wilson, and Kay work around the spacecraft.

2:58 Pan down and up one side of the spacecraft

3:33 Pan down another side of the spacecraft

3:58 Sebastian Alexander, Katalyst’s lead environmental test engineer, provides a safety briefing to Northrop Grumman and Katalyst personnel.

4:13 Northrop Grumman and Katalyst personnel lower a lifting frame toward the spacecraft.

4:19 Robertson and Katalyst mechanical engineer Chad Smith attach the frame to LINK.

4:36 Robertson and Smith remove the bolts holding LINK to its shipping stand.

5:04 LINK lifts off its stand.

5:31 Pan up the LINK spacecraft

5:58 Wells works on the side of the rocket.

6:17 McManus, Wells, NASA Wallops range safety officer Logan Right, and Chris Spiva, Northrop Grumman’s Wallops safety lead walk along the side of the rocket.

6:24 McManus, Wells, and Lopez work on the rocket while Right observes.

6:45 Robertson uses a tilt cart to slowly orient LINK horizontally.

9:06 Smith and Robertson guide the lifting frame back towards LINK while Northrop Grumman technician Steven Thomas observes.

9:20 Thomas and Northrop Grumman technician Luke Scott walk around LINK with the lifting frame attached.

9:30 Thomas and Right check out LINK ahead of a lift maneuver.

9:43 Robertson and Smith remove the bolts holding LINK to the base of the tilt cart.

10:20 Robertson braces LINK as Smith rolls the tilt cart out from underneath the spacecraft.

10:35 Robertson and Smith steady LINK as a crane backs it towards the Pegasus XL.

13:17 Wells examines LINK’s placement as Katalyst and Northrop Grumman personnel observe.

13:26 Wells and Pegasus XL mechanical engineer Karl Sherm attach LINK to the rocket with other Northrop Grumman personnel assisting.

14:46 View of the front of the spacecraft

14:54 Wells tightens some of the bottom bolts holding LINK to Pegasus XL.

14:59 Scherm works on the top bolts.

15:12 View of the front of the spacecraft

15:25 Scherm examines the bottom bolts connecting LINK and the rocket.

15:39 Side view of the spacecraft

15:44 Smith and Robertson steady the lifting frame as a crane moves it away from LINK.

15:58 Smith steps away from LINK.

16:08 Robertson and Smith remove the lens covers from LINK’s cameras.

16:34 Wells works on the spacecraft-rocket interface.

16:49 McManus, Wells, and Scherm slowly close the left side of the rocket’s fairing work as Wilson watches. (The blue glove on the front of the fairing is used as a visual indicator for a long screw.)

19:40 The Northrop Grumman team adjusts the placement of the left half of the fairing.

20:29 Scherm and Wells tighten fairing bolts.

20:41 Lopez and McManus work on the right half of the fairing.

21:01 Lopez and Wells move the right half of the fairing into place.

21:13 Wells connects a nozzle as the team adjusts the fairing’s position.

21:39 The Northrop Grumman team closes the rocket’s fairing.

22:17 McManus works on the fairing closure.

22:26 The Northrop Grumman team works on the rocket after the fairing is closed.

23:13 Shot of the closed rocket with no personnel

23:21 The rocket backs out of the Horizontal Integration Facility on a large trailer