NASA Telescope Rescue Mission Fails

NASA and Katalyst Space Technologies have officially abandoned the $30 million mission to rescue the aging Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, leaving the space telescope to burn up in Earth's atmosphere later this year . The decision came after the Link rescue spacecraft, launched July 3, suffered critical attitude control issues, including an uncontrollable spin caused by reaction wheel and thruster problems . While engineers slowed the spin from 9 to 1.47 degrees per second, persistent positioning problems made capture impossible . "This is not the outcome we were working toward," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said . Swift, launched in 2004 to study gamma-ray bursts, had its orbit decaying to 347 kilometers amid heightened solar activity . The failure also clouds similar life-extension plans for the Hubble Space Telescope . Katalyst will continue operating Link near Swift to demonstrate technologies for future missions .