In the quiet arithmetic of orbital decay, a 20-year-old telescope named Swift continues its patient watch over the universe's most violent events, even as the robotic spacecraft sent to save it tumbles uncontrolled in the dark above Earth. NASA's LINK servicing vehicle — humanity's first robotic attempt to extend the life of an aging observatory — lost two of its three stabilizing reaction wheels shortly after reaching orbit, leaving engineers on the ground racing to rewrite the algorithms that might yet bring it under control. The stakes are not merely technical: if Swift cannot be lifted to