<\/p>\n Today (Aug. 19), NASA announced an official end to LINK’s efforts to boost Swift’s orbit, citing ongoing attitude control issues<\/a> with the private spacecraft, but the agency hasn’t canceled the mission outright. LINK will still attempt a rendezvous with Swift in order to practice proximity operations and demonstrate its capabilities other than spacecraft capture, which could aid future missions down the road.<\/p>\n From its inception, the Swift Boost mission was always viewed as a long shot. Increased solar activity had already begun decaying the observatory’s orbit faster than anticipated when NASA awarded the $30 million Swift Boost contract to Katalyst in 2025<\/a>, giving the Arizona-based company less than a year<\/a> to complete LINK’s design, manufacture and testing before time to save Swift would run out.<\/p>\n “NASA should be willing to move quickly and take smart risks when the potential return is worth it, and that is exactly what we did with this mission,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a statement today<\/a>. “This is not the outcome we were working toward, but it does not change why this mission was worth attempting. The team moved with extraordinary speed to give Swift a chance to carry out more science while advancing capabilities America will need for satellite<\/a> servicing in the future.”<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n Swift is a one-of-its kind orbital observatory designed to study high-energy phenomena across the universe<\/a>. It can detect sudden events like gamma-ray bursts<\/a> and quickly direct its instruments to study them in X-ray, ultraviolet and visible light. The spacecraft is also routinely redirected for rapid response research to study things like newly discovered supernovae, black-hole ejections, fast radio bursts and other short-lived astronomical events.<\/p>\n
![\"Space\"](\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/media\/img\/spc-logo-w.svg\"){kind=logo}
<\/p>\n