NASA and Katalyst Space Technologies said Wednesday that the company's Link spacecraft will not attempt to capture and boost the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, because of continuing problems controlling the vehicle [1][2]. NASA had paid $30 million for the boost, and what it got instead is a proximity-operations experiment next to a telescope that will reenter the atmosphere later this year, no earlier than October [3][4][5].
The mechanics of the failure are ordinary and therefore instructive. Link launched in early July and went into an uncontrollable spin a few weeks later [6]. On July 28 NASA said hardware malfunctions had caused the tumble and that communications with the spacecraft were sporadic [7]. Controllers slowed the spin using the same xenon-gas thrusters that were meant to lift Swift, but pointing and positioning problems persisted [8][9].
The schedule was the other variable. NASA found Swift's orbit decaying faster than expected because of intense solar activity, which set a hard deadline, and Katalyst had nine months to design, build and launch Link, a spacecraft intended to grab the telescope with robotic arms [10][11][12]. Chief executive Ghonhee Lee described it as an ambitious mission on an aggressive timeline put together in under a year, and said the company took on a high-risk, high-reward challenge and had already learned a great deal [13][14]. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the outcome was not what the team worked toward but does not change why the mission was worth attempting [15].
The cost to science is concrete. Swift launched in 2004 and its instruments were switched off earlier this year to slow the descent, so the observations stopped before the rescue did [16][17]. As of Wednesday the telescope was at 214 miles, against the 373-mile orbit Katalyst hoped to restore, a shortfall of 159 miles [18][19][20]. Scientific American reports that Swift's loss leaves a gap in high-energy observations that is unlikely to be filled soon [21].
The planning consequence is larger than one telescope. Hubble, now 36 years old, is also losing altitude because of solar activity and had been next in line for a servicing attempt if this one had gone well; whether that is still on the table was not immediately known [22][23][24]. Programs writing mission-extension into their risk plans should note that the money bought a launch, a spin and a set of lessons, not the orbit.
Katalyst will keep flying Link near Swift to gather data for future rescue work, and Lee says the aim is a repeatable playbook for rendezvous, proximity operations and servicing [25][26]. Three things to watch: whether the proximity campaign produces enough engineering data to make the $30 million defensible [3][25], the actual reentry date once atmospheric drag is measured against the October estimate [5], and what NASA now says about Hubble [24].
