Overview
- NASA announced Thursday that it is stopping efforts to raise the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and that no further orbit‑raising attempts will be made, leaving the aging telescope likely to re‑enter Earth’s atmosphere within months.
- Katalyst’s servicer, LINK, developed attitude‑control problems after launch when two of its three reaction wheels failed and the vehicle began tumbling, forcing engineers to switch control modes and use thrusters to stabilize it.
- LINK’s electric main engine and small control thrusters draw from the same xenon tank, and repeated stabilization burns during recovery exhausted that propellant so there was not enough fuel left to boost Swift’s orbit.
- Swift was placed in a low‑power state in February to slow its orbital decay while NASA sought a rescue; the expedited, roughly $30 million contract to young startup Katalyst gave about nine months to design and build LINK, a compressed schedule critics say raised technical risk.
- Although the orbit‑raise failed, LINK will continue close approaches to Swift to gather operational data and demonstrate techniques, and the mission’s outcome raises questions about rapid commercial servicing, testing standards, and debris‑risk planning for future in‑orbit repairs.