NASA announced on Wednesday that a specialized mission to salvage the Swift space telescope has been declared a failure. The $30 million project was designed to deploy a robotic spacecraft to physically maneuver the aging telescope into a higher, more stable orbit, thereby extending its operational lifespan. However, the mission encountered a critical setback when the rescue spacecraft failed to respond to ground commands, rendering the planned maneuver impossible.

With the rescue attempt abandoned, NASA officials confirmed that the Swift telescope will remain in its current decaying orbit. The agency expects the satellite to eventually re-enter Earth’s atmosphere, where it is projected to disintegrate safely later this year. The Swift telescope, which has been instrumental in studying gamma-ray bursts and other high-energy phenomena in the universe, will continue to operate until its orbit degrades to the point of atmospheric re-entry. NASA has not yet released a detailed technical report on the specific cause of the rescue spacecraft's communication failure, though the agency maintains that the mission was an unprecedented attempt at orbital maintenance.