NASA’s Swift Rescue Dives Into Crisis as Space Tug Loses Control
NASA’s risky plan to rescue its aging Swift gamma-ray observatory with the LINK space tug is unraveling after LINK begins tumbling, with preliminary findings showing two of its three reaction wheels are inoperable and its cold‑gas thruster system degraded. Ground teams can still communicate with Swift, but engineers must halt LINK’s spin before reassessing next steps; the mission cost was about $30 million, and time is running out as Swift could re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere in the coming months.