Rescuers Become Orbital Risk

As commercial satellite servicing scales, rescue vehicles themselves can become secondary hazards if single failures (attitude control, propulsion, or fuel exhaustion) occur; mission fuel budgets, tight timing windows (due to decay or space weather), and complexity make ‘grab‑and‑boost’ operations fragile, turning intended saviors into new debris sources. The Swift/LINK episode shows a rescue craft burned up before it could save the target and the telescope reentered months later. — This reframes the commercial servicing boom as a governance and insurance problem: policies, standards, and fail‑safe requirements are needed to prevent rescuer‑created debris and cascading losses.