Rescue mission canceled for NASA's Swift space telescope

The mission to save NASA’s sinking Swift Observatory has been called off, dooming the telescope to a fiery reentry later this year. NASA and Katalyst Space Technologies announced the news last week, more than a month after the startup's Link spacecraft rocketed away to the telescope's rescue. Katalyst said Link will not attempt to capture Swift and boost it to a higher orbit because of problems with controlling the spacecraft. NASA said this means the telescope will plunge through the atmosphere after more than 20 years of tracking some of the biggest explosions in the universe such as gamma ray bursts and exploding stars. Its demise is not expected before October. NASA paid $30 million to Katalyst in an attempt to raise the telescope to a safer, longer-lasting orbit. Intense solar activity caused it to lose altitude faster than expected.