We’ll start this week off with some disappointing, though not entirely unexpected, news — the ambitious commercial mission to save NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is officially a bust. The space agency provided an update earlier this week explaining that the attitude control issues with the LINK spacecraft that started a few weeks after it launched will prevent it from being able to safely dock with the Swift Observatory and boost its altitude. As such, the space telescope is now expected to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up before the end of the year.

Although LINK won’t be able to live up to its name, NASA did say operator Katalyst Space has been given permission to continue with the rendezvous attempt. The two craft won’t actually make contact with each other, but teams on both sides feel there’s lessons to be learned and data to be collected by seeing the orbital dance of these two vehicles play out for as long as possible.

Speaking of hardware that couldn’t quite hit its design goals, TechCrunch is reporting that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Oura by customers that say the company made misleading claims about the sleep-tracking accuracy of their smart rings. Namely, that the rings could somehow detect which stage of sleep the wearer was in with only the pulse and temperature sensors it has onboard.

The complaint argues that sleep stages can only be accurately determined with an electroencephalogram (EEG), and that there’s no way for the ring hardware to actually know what’s happening in the wearer’s brain. For their part Oura has released a statement defending their methodology, and say that the ability of their rings to estimate sleep cycles compares favorably with data collected from clinical sleep studies. It should be interesting to see how this one plays out.

On the subject of products not quite doing what you expected, there’s been a story buzzing around online about a number of computer games failing to work properly on Windows machines that have installed the August system updates. Microsoft has investigated the issue and is currently pointing the finger towards RGB lights as the potential culprit.

On the surface it might sound like some kind of exotic hardware clash or interference, but the actual issue is disappointingly mundane. According to Microsoft, the August update fiddles with a system component that the software which drives some of these lights ties into, namely inpoutx64. As a quick fix they’ve provided some instructions on keys that can be modified in the Windows Registry to prevent the conflict, but it sounds like such gefingerpoken und mittengrabben may prevent the blinkenlights from performing their critical function.

Finally, we’ll end this week with an update on the ASCII CITY project that’s been making the rounds online. For those who haven’t seen it yet, this is 3D engine implemented in a single HTML file that renders a cyberpunk 3D city for players to wander around in. The latest version brings many new features to the non-game, notably the ability to enter the various buildings scattered throughout the world.

Previously we could only admire this virtual world from afar. But now that developer Grow Now! Games has released a playable prototype, you can transport yourself into this new digital frontier like in Tron.

See something interesting that you think would be a good fit for our weekly Links column? Drop us a line; we’d love to hear about it.

Due to an ongoing commercial spacecraft attitude control issue, NASA and Katalyst Space announced Wednesday the LINK spacecraft will not capture or boost an agency satellite to a higher altitude to extend its science mission as planned. However, LINK still will attempt to conduct rendezvous and proximity operations with NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory to demonstrate key capabilities for the future of space exploration.

“NASA should be willing to move quickly and take smart risks when the potential return is worth it, and that is exactly what we did with this mission,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “This is not the outcome we were working toward, but it does not change why this mission was worth attempting. The team moved with extraordinary speed to give Swift a chance to carry out more science while advancing capabilities America will need for satellite servicing in the future. We are going to learn everything we can from LINK’s rendezvous attempt and put those lessons to work on the missions that follow.”

NASA and Katalyst are working closely to assess next steps for rendezvous and gather as much data as possible to inform future satellite servicing operations.

“We knew this was a high-risk, high-reward mission – a first-of-its kind attempt, developed on an unprecedented timeline driven by the Sun’s activity,” said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, director, Astrophysics Division, NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We were all hoping for more science from Swift. But we knew the takeaways from this mission would be worthwhile either way, and we have gained so much through the series of accomplishments up to this point.”

Without intervention, NASA anticipates Swift is likely to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere later this year. As part of the agency’s previous planning for Swift’s end of life, NASA will continue to prioritize finding new options to react rapidly to cosmic events, using current missions to help fill the gap in the meantime.

“Building, testing, and operating this mission has already strengthened America’s space industry pipeline, advancing in-space servicing capabilities in completely new ways,” Domagal-Goldman said. “NASA is committed to supporting our commercial vendors as they take on difficult tasks with the agency, to push the boundaries of what’s possible. We’re so proud of this team for: getting to the launch pad in record time, in a record-setting year for NASA astrophysics launches; its innovative problem-solving up to this point; and the dedication to the exciting capabilities this mission will attempt to demonstrate next.”

Swift was launched in 2004 to study gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful explosions in the universe, and other cosmic objects and events. It was designed for a two-year prime mission. After 21 years of science operations, Swift’s low Earth orbit began to rapidly decay because of increased solar activity. NASA used this opportunity to advance U.S. spacecraft servicing technology, awarding a contract to Katalyst in September 2025 to mount a robotic servicing mission for Swift in less than a year.

The LINK spacecraft launched July 3 on a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket from Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific Ocean. Teams established communications with LINK and conducted in-orbit checkouts over the following weeks, before the spacecraft experienced attitude control issues.

Learn more from Katalyst, and monitor NASA’s Swift blog for continued updates throughout rendezvous:  

https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/swift

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Alise Fisher
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-2546
alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov