Topic: NASA Swift telescope

A daring orbital rescue is officially over, and a legendary NASA telescope is falling to its death. NASA and Flagstaff-based Katalyst Space Technologies called off the mission to save the sinking Swift Observatory on Wednesday after the rescue spacecraft proved impossible to control, dooming the telescope to a fiery reentry expected no earlier than October. The failure carries a second casualty in waiting: the aging Hubble Space Telescope was next in line for a rescue if this one had worked.