NASA's Swift Observatory rescue mission fails as spacecraft loses control

For more than twenty years, the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has watched the universe's most violent moments from low Earth orbit, cataloguing gamma-ray bursts and reshaping our understanding of the cosmos. A bold attempt to extend its life — the first commercial satellite servicing mission of its kind in American history — ended in August 2026 when the rescue spacecraft, LINK, fell into an uncontrollable spin it could never escape. Swift will now follow the arc of all mortal things, returning to the atmosphere that once launched it. The failure is a reminder that the frontier between ambiti