T+329: Katalyst Space and the Mission to Boost Swift (with Ghonhee Lee, Founder and CEO)

Ghonhee Lee, CEO of Katalyst Space, joins me to talk about their upcoming mission to boost NASA’s Swift observatory, and how they are approaching in-orbit services differently than those that came before.

This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 32 executive producers—Donald, Ryan, Joakim, Better Every Day Studios, Stealth Julian, David, Theo and Violet, Lee, Miles O’Brien, Will and Lars from Agile, Tim Dodd (the Everyday Astronaut!), The Astrogators at SEE, Frank, Steve, Russell, Matt, Joel, Kris, Natasha Tsakos, Pat, Jan, Warren, Fred, Joonas, Josh from Impulse, and four anonymous—and hundreds of supporters (mainenginecutoff.com/support).

Topics

• Upgrade Satellites Post-Launch | Katalyst Space Technologies​ (katalystspace.com)

• A unique NASA satellite is falling out of orbit—this team is trying to rescue it - Ars Technica (arstechnica.com/space/2026/03/a-unique-nasa-sa…)

• Swift spacecraft reorientation buys time for reboost mission - SpaceNews (spacenews.com/swift-spacecraft-reorientation-b…)

• Katalyst Space acquires Atomos to accelerate in-space services - SpaceNews (spacenews.com/katalyst-space-acquires-atomos-t…)

• Arianespace to launch Katalyst servicing spacecraft - SpaceNews (spacenews.com/arianespace-to-launch-katalyst-s…)

• LinkedIn post with the mission patch (linkedin.com/posts/katalyst-space_the-katalyst…)

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