NASA announced Wednesday that it has abandoned the rescue mission for its Swift Observatory, leaving the $500 million space telescope to its fate — a fiery plunge through Earth's atmosphere later this year.
The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, launched into low Earth orbit in 2004, has been rapidly losing altitude due to atmospheric drag intensified by a period of high solar activity beginning in 2024. In 2025, NASA awarded a $30 million contract to Katalyst Space Technologies to build a spacecraft called LINK and attempt a first-of-its-kind orbital boost.
LINK launched July 3 on Northrop Grumman's Pegasus XL rocket and initially established communications. But within two weeks, attitude control problems emerged. By late July, LINK was spinning at approximately 9 degrees per second, and despite thruster firings to slow the rotation, the spacecraft's orientation systems never recovered.
"This is not the outcome we were working toward, but it does not change why this mission was worth attempting," said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman.
Although LINK will not boost the observatory, Katalyst will still attempt to approach and rendezvous with Swift to conduct technology demonstrations for future satellite servicing missions. Swift was designed to study gamma-ray bursts — the most powerful explosions in the universe, triggered by events like black hole formation and neutron star collisions.
The failure underscores the challenge of in-orbit rescue operations and the vulnerability of aging satellites during periods of heightened solar activity.
