Swift Reenters Earth After Failed Orbital Boost Mission

What was LINK designed to do?

Solar maximum, the period of heightened solar activity, had increased atmospheric drag on Swift and pulled its orbit lower. NASA predicted that the aging telescope would reenter later in 2026, cutting short an extended scientific run.

In September 2025, NASA contracted Katalyst Space Technologies, a startup based in Flagstaff, Arizona, and gave the company less than a year to turn the idea into a flying mission. Katalyst designed and built LINK to rendezvous with Swift — meet it in orbit — dock with the telescope and boost it to a higher altitude for a few more years of science.

LINK launched July 3 aboard a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket. During the final weekend of July, it lost control of two of its three reaction wheels. The failures occurred during on-orbit commissioning and sent the spacecraft tumbling at nearly 9 degrees per second, compromising communications with ground controllers.

Katalyst fired LINK’s electric propulsion thrusters for several weeks to slow the spin, reducing it to about 1.47 degrees per second by early August. An Aug. 11 flight-software fix restored the spacecraft’s attitude control.

The rescue plan was ambitious, but Swift was already running out of time and altitude.

Why could LINK not complete the boost?

Reaction wheels are spinning flywheels that store angular momentum, the momentum of a rotating mass, to point a spacecraft precisely without burning propellant. Three wheels, angled correctly, can hold a spacecraft steady on every axis. NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, set to launch Aug. 30, carries six for redundancy; LINK carried only the required minimum of three.

Although the software fix restored pointing, the schedule had become unforgiving. NASA’s Aug. 19 announcement said LINK would still conduct rendezvous and proximity operations — closing in and flying near Swift to test maneuvers for a future servicing mission — but would make no attempt to raise Swift’s orbit.

By then, Swift had decayed to an orbital height of 216 miles, or 347 kilometers, just 31 miles, or 50 kilometers, short of the point at which an orbit-raising mission would become much more difficult. Neither NASA nor Katalyst had said whether LINK would dock and remain through Swift’s final days or drift away on its own.

Without the boost, NASA expected Swift to burn up before the end of 2026. The wheel problem had cost the rescue mission its central purpose.

What did LINK accomplish after the boost was canceled?

On Sept. 4, NASA announced that LINK had made its closest approach to Swift, coming within roughly 8 miles, or 13 kilometers. Because of lingering attitude-control problems, NASA said the two spacecraft would come no closer.

Around that phase of the mission, Katalyst put LINK through a series of tests that included:

• Raising LINK’s own orbit.
• Aligning the spacecraft with Swift’s path.
• Unfurling all three robotic arms.
• Firing all three xenon thrusters simultaneously on Aug. 30.

With no further approach planned, Katalyst expected LINK to deorbit later that month. LINK deorbited and reentered on Sept. 25, ending its mission. The spacecraft had failed to capture Swift or boost its orbit, but the team collected useful data across 85 days of operation that could inform future missions.

LINK produced useful servicing data, but not the orbit extension the mission was designed to deliver.

How did Swift operate during its final months?

With the boost canceled, Swift’s team switched its ultraviolet/optical and X-ray telescopes back on Aug. 26. The instruments had been shut down for months to reduce drag and slow the observatory’s orbital decay. A third instrument, the Burst Alert Telescope, was expected to follow in the coming weeks.

NASA still anticipated that the gamma-ray observatory would reenter and burn up before year’s end. It did, on Nov. 4, and most of the spacecraft was expected to break apart completely during the descent.

Swift resumed its science program for a final stretch, but it reentered before the end of the year.