Rescue Attempt Fails, NASA's Swift Telescope Now Falling Toward Earth

NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, launched in November 2004, has spent more than two decades studying gamma-ray bursts, brief flashes of radiation from outside the Milky Way, using three instruments: a Burst Alert Telescope, an Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope and an X-Ray Telescope. It can swivel toward a burst's afterglow within minutes to pinpoint its source. But at roughly 340 kilometers up, its orbit is decaying fast because of atmospheric drag and unusually strong solar activity, putting it on course to burn up in the atmosphere.

In September 2025, NASA called for help to save Swift. Arizona-based Katalyst Space Technologies won a $30 million NASA contract to boost the telescope higher, building a refrigerator-size robotic spacecraft called LINK in nine months. LINK launched on July 3 to rendezvous with Swift, but its maneuvering gear malfunctioned weeks later.

Katalyst's team used LINK's main engines to stop its tumbling, but that left both systems without enough fuel to complete the rescue. NASA and Katalyst called off the mission on August 19. Katalyst CEO Ghonhee Lee said three more months could have made "a tremendous difference" for the nine-month build.

Swift's reentry will now be uncontrolled, NASA's Alise Fisher confirmed. NASA astrophysicist Brad Cenko, the mission's principal investigator, said Swift dropped about 10 kilometers in the past month, and that managers lose control below roughly 300 kilometers altitude. Modeling points to reentry in late November or December; Fisher said it is unlikely before October.

Swift's dry mass is 613 kilograms. NASA expects most of it to burn up, though some parts may survive, says Darren McKnight of LeoLabs, which tracks objects in Earth orbit, including telescope internals, optical lenses and titanium tanks. Swift's 21-degree orbital inclination means debris could land anywhere between 21 degrees north and south latitude; Ewan Wright of the University of British Columbia said it would most likely fall into the sea, though a populated area is not impossible.