NASA and Katalyst Space Technologies have called off an ambitious $30 million rescue mission to save the 20-year-old Swift Observatory after the rescue spacecraft, Link, suffered persistent orientation and control failures. The space telescope, which lost altitude rapidly due to intense solar activity, is now doomed to fall from its current orbit and disintegrate in Earth's atmosphere no earlier than October, while also casting uncertainty over a similar planned rescue attempt for the aging Hubble Space Telescope.