A spacecraft is falling to its doom — can NASA save it?

NASA's Swift space observatory is in a critical state, facing a potential uncontrolled descent to Earth, as reported by Nature on June 22, 2026. The observatory, launched in 2004, has experienced a series of failures, including a gyroscope malfunction and subsequent power issues, which have rendered it largely inoperable. Mission controllers are working on a complex maneuver to regain control and potentially de-orbit the spacecraft safely over a remote ocean area. This situation draws parallels to past spacecraft recovery efforts and highlights the challenges of maintaining aging orbital assets. The success of a potential Swift rescue could offer valuable lessons and a positive precedent for the ongoing operations and future of other long-serving NASA missions, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, which also faces its own set of operational challenges and an eventual need for de-orbiting. The article in Nature details the technical hurdles and the collaborative efforts underway by NASA engineers and scientists to mitigate the risks associated with the observatory's uncontrolled fall and to preserve its scientific legacy.