Katalyst's LINK craft was launched in early July to approach the observatory, also known as Swift, some 216 miles (347 km) in space, grapple onto it and then tug it to a higher orbit of roughly 373 miles (600 km), extending its life by years.

The mission to save NASA's sinking space telescope has been called off. NASA and Katalyst Space Technologies announced the news Wednesday.

WASHINGTON, Aug 19 : A mission to rescue NASA's aging SWIFT observatory in space was canceled on Wednesday after the spacecraft that had been deployed to raise the telescope's…

Swift launched in 2004 to study powerful explosions such as gamma-ray bursts and other cosmic objects and phenomena.