'This is not the outcome we were working towards': $30 million mission to save NASA's Swift telescope fails

NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, shown in this artist’s concept, has orbited Earth for more than 20 years, studying the ever-changing universe.

NASA's Swift Observatory is set to come crashing down to Earth later this year after a private mission failed to save the tumbling telescope.

A rescue spacecraft named LINK, which was designed by private company Katalyst Space, launched on July 3 with the aim of raising the falling observatory to a higher orbit. However, in the weeks following launch, the rescue mission itself encountered problems and started spinning out of control. On Wednesday (Aug. 19) NASA announced that the rescue mission would not continue as planned.