A mission to rescue NASA's aging Swift observatory in space was canceled on Wednesday after the spacecraft that was launched to tug the satellite to a higher orbit suffered irredeemable technical issues in space, the rescue craft's owner, Katalyst Space, said.
Katalyst's LINK craft was launched in early July to approach the observatory, also known as Swift, some 216 miles (347 km) in space, grapple onto it and then tug it to a higher orbit of roughly 373 miles (600 km), extending its life by years.
