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Recently, the NASA mission known as LINK, with the goal of reboosting the Niel Gehrels Swift Observatory has failed. The mission launched aboard the last Pegasus XL launch vehicle, a plane mounted solid rocket booster that can send small payloads to orbit at a very economical cost. LINK sucessfully achieved orbit and communications relay capabilities, and was preparing for a renedevous and boost with the Swift observatory. Unfortunately, during orbit, the craft entered an uncontrolled spin. This spin caused the spacecraft to not be able to rendevous and uncooperatively dock (that is dock without a standard docking adapter) with the observatory. The mission was cancelled, and LINK reentered the Earth's atmosphere and burned up on September 25, 2026.
The Swift Observatory is now expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere rapidly, in late November 2026. The observatory cost about 250 million dollars, and operated from 2004 to this day. The observatory was crucial for observation and reporting on gamma-ray bursts, extreme high energy events that release more energy in seconds than our Sun will emit in its entire life. Swift also had a wide field of view to detect gamma ray bursts to immediately inform ground observatories, so they could observe them in real time. Swift will continue to perform final science operations before its demise later this year.
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