diff --git a/.github/workflows/data-refresh.yml b/.github/workflows/data-refresh.yml
index fa24a64..bf90aa5 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/data-refresh.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/data-refresh.yml
@@ -49,9 +49,11 @@ jobs:
           key: gaia-dr3-${{ hashFiles('tools/etl/sources/gaia.ts') }}
 
       # Every other source is fetched live on this fresh runner. A failed fetch fails the run by
-      # design — no refresh is better than a partial one. That includes Gaia on a cold cache:
-      # the ETL skips it when unreachable, and the merge gate in build.ts then refuses a
-      # catalogue it contributed nothing to.
+      # design — no refresh is better than a partial one. That includes Gaia on a cold cache, by
+      # two different paths: its Hipparcos cross-match is required, so an unreachable archive
+      # fails the run from fetchStars itself, while its main query is skipped when unreachable and
+      # the merge gate in build.ts then refuses a catalogue it contributed nothing to. An archive
+      # that answers short rather than not at all is caught in fetchGaiaStars.
       - name: Rebuild the datasets
         run: npm run etl
 
diff --git a/src/app/features/galaxy-system/galaxy-system-scene.component.spec.ts b/src/app/features/galaxy-system/galaxy-system-scene.component.spec.ts
index e669b9b..e470776 100644
--- a/src/app/features/galaxy-system/galaxy-system-scene.component.spec.ts
+++ b/src/app/features/galaxy-system/galaxy-system-scene.component.spec.ts
@@ -13,8 +13,10 @@ import { NavigationStore } from '../../shared/state/navigation.store';
 import { LinkBudget } from '../../shared/astro/jump-links';
 import { HudDisplay } from '../hud/hud-dock.component';
 import { GalaxySystemSceneComponent } from './galaxy-system-scene.component';
+import { galacticNormal } from './grid-plane';
 import { JumpLinkRenderer } from './jump-link-renderer';
 import { StarFieldRenderer } from './star-field-renderer';
+import { LabeledPoint, StarLabelOverlay } from './star-label-overlay';
 
 // jsdom does not implement ResizeObserver; the component only uses it to react to real
 // layout changes, which never happen in this headless test.
@@ -418,12 +420,155 @@ describe('GalaxySystemSceneComponent camera-flight transitions', () => {
     });
   });
 
+  describe('the local grid of distance rings', () => {
+    type GridScene = {
+      controls: { target: THREE.Vector3; update(): void };
+      display: { update(change: (display: HudDisplay) => HudDisplay): void };
+      localGridRadii: readonly number[];
+    };
+
+    it('sizes the rings by how far the frame reaches from the Sun, under either projection', async () => {
+      const component = fixture.componentInstance as unknown as GridScene;
+      const camera = engine.getCamera();
+      // Centred on a point 200 pc out along the galactic plane — where the rings are — seen from
+      // 20 pc above it. The rings have to reach it, and one of them has to cross the frame.
+      const normal = galacticNormal();
+      const centre = new THREE.Vector3(1, 0, 0).projectOnPlane(normal).normalize().multiplyScalar(200);
+      component.controls.target.copy(centre);
+      camera.position.copy(centre).addScaledVector(normal, 20);
+      component.controls.update();
+      await advanceFrames(engine, 0.3);
+      const underPerspective = [...component.localGridRadii];
+
+      component.display.update((display) => ({ ...display, plan: true }));
+      TestBed.tick();
+      await advanceFrames(engine, 0.3);
+
+      expect(underPerspective.at(-1)).toBeGreaterThanOrEqual(200);
+      // The frame is a band about 19 pc either side of 200 pc: rings out to 220 at a step sized to
+      // all 220 are 180 and 200, both of them off screen.
+      const halfHeight = engine.visibleHalfHeight(20);
+      expect(underPerspective.some((radius) => Math.abs(radius - 200) < halfHeight)).toBe(true);
+      // The plan view's wheel moves the frame rather than the camera, so "how far out the camera
+      // is" means something else there; what the rings have to cover does not.
+      expect([...component.localGridRadii]).toEqual(underPerspective);
+    });
+
+    it('measures the span in the plane the rings lie in, not through it', async () => {
+      const component = fixture.componentInstance as unknown as GridScene;
+      const camera = engine.getCamera();
+      // The same 200 pc out along the plane, but lifted 150 pc above it: 250 pc from the Sun as the
+      // crow flies, and still 200 pc out among the rings, which is the distance they are drawn at.
+      const normal = galacticNormal();
+      const centre = new THREE.Vector3(1, 0, 0).projectOnPlane(normal).normalize().multiplyScalar(200).addScaledVector(normal, 150);
+      component.controls.target.copy(centre);
+      camera.position.copy(centre).addScaledVector(normal, 20);
+      component.controls.update();
+      await advanceFrames(engine, 0.3);
+
+      const halfHeight = engine.visibleHalfHeight(20);
+      expect([...component.localGridRadii].some((radius) => Math.abs(radius - 200) < halfHeight)).toBe(true);
+    });
+
+    it('leaves the rings alone while the grid is not drawn', async () => {
+      const component = fixture.componentInstance as unknown as GridScene;
+      const camera = engine.getCamera();
+      await advanceFrames(engine, 0.3);
+      component.display.update((display) => ({ ...display, grid: false }));
+      TestBed.tick();
+      await advanceFrames(engine, 0.3);
+      const hidden = [...component.localGridRadii];
+
+      // A zoom this size crosses two round steps, and each crossing rebuilds every ring's vertices.
+      camera.position.setLength(camera.position.length() / 8);
+      component.controls.update();
+      await advanceFrames(engine, 0.3);
+
+      expect([...component.localGridRadii]).toEqual(hidden);
+    });
+
+    it('drops a ring label that a star name has taken, or that is off screen, and keeps the ladder otherwise', () => {
+      const component = fixture.componentInstance as unknown as {
+        ringLabelsInTheClear(candidates: readonly LabeledPoint[], camera: THREE.Camera, stars: readonly LabeledPoint[]): LabeledPoint[];
+      };
+      const camera = engine.getCamera();
+      camera.updateMatrixWorld(true);
+      const at = (x: number, y: number) => new THREE.Vector3(x, y, 0.5).unproject(camera);
+      // Rungs at a twentieth of the screen: well inside the separation two names would keep, and
+      // well outside the clearance a ring label keeps from a name, so neither test is a coin toss.
+      const near = at(0.1, 0.1);
+      const nextRungUp = at(0.1, 0.18);
+      const offScreen = at(1.6, 0.1);
+      const ladder: LabeledPoint[] = [
+        { id: 'ring-50', name: '50 pc', x: near.x, y: near.y, z: near.z },
+        { id: 'ring-100', name: '100 pc', x: nextRungUp.x, y: nextRungUp.y, z: nextRungUp.z },
+        { id: 'ring-150', name: '150 pc', x: offScreen.x, y: offScreen.y, z: offScreen.z }
+      ];
+
+      // A ladder of rings stays whole, though its rungs are closer than two star names would be.
+      expect(component.ringLabelsInTheClear(ladder, camera, []).map((label) => label.id)).toEqual(['ring-50', 'ring-100']);
+      // A star's name is worth more than a distance.
+      const star: LabeledPoint = { id: 7, name: 'Sirius', x: near.x, y: near.y, z: near.z };
+      expect(component.ringLabelsInTheClear(ladder, camera, [star]).map((label) => label.id)).toEqual(['ring-100']);
+    });
+
+    it('stays out of the text of a name, not just off its point', () => {
+      const component = fixture.componentInstance as unknown as {
+        ringLabelsInTheClear(candidates: readonly LabeledPoint[], camera: THREE.Camera, stars: readonly LabeledPoint[]): LabeledPoint[];
+        viewportAspect(): number;
+      };
+      const camera = engine.getCamera();
+      camera.updateMatrixWorld(true);
+      const aspect = component.viewportAspect();
+      const at = (x: number, y: number) => new THREE.Vector3(x / aspect, y, 0.5).unproject(camera);
+      // A hand's breadth apart on screen — past any clearance around the point — and on the same
+      // line, with the name's text running right through where the ring label starts.
+      const ring = at(0.125, -0.123);
+      const rung: LabeledPoint = { id: 'ring-50', name: '50 pc', x: ring.x, y: ring.y, z: ring.z };
+      const beside = at(0.06, -0.12);
+      const rightHand: LabeledPoint = { id: 7, name: 'Alpha Centauri', side: 'right', x: beside.x, y: beside.y, z: beside.z };
+
+      expect(component.ringLabelsInTheClear([rung], camera, [rightHand])).toEqual([]);
+      // The same name hanging the other way leaves that space empty, and the rung with it.
+      expect(component.ringLabelsInTheClear([rung], camera, [{ ...rightHand, side: 'left' }])).toEqual([rung]);
+
+      // And a rung to the left of a name keeps its place: "50 pc" is a third of a star name's
+      // width, so it ends well before the name starts, whatever the anchors' spacing suggests.
+      const centred = at(0, 0);
+      const spanning: LabeledPoint = { id: 8, name: 'Alnitak', side: 'right', x: centred.x, y: centred.y, z: centred.z };
+      const toTheLeft = at(-0.25, 0.02);
+      const clearRung: LabeledPoint = { id: 'ring-100', name: '100 pc', x: toTheLeft.x, y: toTheLeft.y, z: toTheLeft.z };
+
+      expect(component.ringLabelsInTheClear([clearRung], camera, [spanning])).toEqual([clearRung]);
+    });
+
+    it('places the ring labels with the star names rather than over them', async () => {
+      const component = fixture.componentInstance as unknown as GridScene;
+      const update = vi.spyOn(StarLabelOverlay.prototype, 'update');
+      const cleared = vi.spyOn(GalaxySystemSceneComponent.prototype as unknown as { ringLabelsInTheClear: (...args: unknown[]) => LabeledPoint[] }, 'ringLabelsInTheClear');
+      const camera = engine.getCamera();
+      camera.position.set(0, 4, 10);
+      component.controls.target.set(0, 0, 0);
+      component.controls.update();
+      await advanceFrames(engine, 0.3);
+
+      const labels = (update.mock.calls.at(-1)?.[0] ?? []) as LabeledPoint[];
+      const rings = labels.filter((label) => String(label.id).startsWith('ring-'));
+      expect(rings.length).toBeGreaterThan(0);
+      // Handed over as the clearing pass left them, not as the grid produced them.
+      expect(cleared).toHaveBeenCalled();
+      expect(rings).toEqual(cleared.mock.results.at(-1)?.value);
+      update.mockRestore();
+      cleared.mockRestore();
+    });
+  });
+
   it('keeps the stars of a plotted route drawn, and the selected star', async () => {
     const component = fixture.componentInstance as unknown as { routeResult: { set(value: unknown): void } };
     const refocus = vi.spyOn(StarFieldRenderer.prototype, 'refocus');
     await advanceFrames(engine, 0.3);
 
-    component.routeResult.set({ stars: [{ id: SUN.id, name: 'Sol' }, { id: PROXIMA.id, name: 'Proxima Centauri' }], totalPc: 1.3, neededRangePc: null });
+    component.routeResult.set({ stars: [{ id: SUN.id, name: 'Sol' }, { id: PROXIMA.id, name: 'Proxima Centauri' }], totalPc: 1.3, neededRangePc: null, gaveUp: false, least: true });
     await advanceFrames(engine, 0.3);
 
     // As catalogue indices: the Sun is the first entry of STARS, Proxima the third.
@@ -473,7 +618,7 @@ describe('GalaxySystemSceneComponent camera-flight transitions', () => {
       expect(links.mock.calls[1][1]).not.toBe(links.mock.calls[0][1]);
 
       // A route re-chooses the drawn stars around its pins, and here they come out the same: no new graph.
-      component.routeResult.set({ stars: [{ id: SUN.id, name: 'Sol' }], totalPc: 0, neededRangePc: null });
+      component.routeResult.set({ stars: [{ id: SUN.id, name: 'Sol' }], totalPc: 0, neededRangePc: null, gaveUp: false, least: true });
       await advanceFrames(engine, 0.3);
       await settle();
       expect(links).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(2);
@@ -595,12 +740,12 @@ describe('GalaxySystemSceneComponent camera-flight transitions', () => {
   });
 
   it('shows the answer to the latest route asked for, whatever order the answers arrive in', async () => {
-    type Answer = { route: { stars: number[]; totalPc: number; longestHopPc: number } | null; neededRangePc: number | null };
+    type Answer = { route: { stars: number[]; totalPc: number; longestHopPc: number } | null; neededRangePc: number | null; gaveUp: boolean; least: boolean };
     const answers: Array<(answer: Answer) => void> = [];
     const component = fixture.componentInstance as unknown as {
       routing: { route(): Promise<Answer>; links(): Promise<Float32Array>; dispose(): void };
       routePending(): boolean;
-      routeResult(): { stars: { id: number }[] } | null;
+      routeResult(): { stars: { id: number }[]; gaveUp: boolean } | null;
       onRouteRequested(request: { fromId: number; toId: number; rangePc: number }): void;
     };
     component.routing = {
@@ -613,13 +758,19 @@ describe('GalaxySystemSceneComponent camera-flight transitions', () => {
     component.onRouteRequested({ fromId: SUN.id, toId: PROXIMA.id, rangePc: 2 });
     expect(component.routePending()).toBe(true);
 
-    answers[1]({ route: { stars: [SUN.id, PROXIMA.id], totalPc: 1.3, longestHopPc: 1.3 }, neededRangePc: null });
+    answers[1]({ route: { stars: [SUN.id, PROXIMA.id], totalPc: 1.3, longestHopPc: 1.3 }, neededRangePc: null, gaveUp: false, least: true });
     await flushAsync();
-    answers[0]({ route: { stars: [SUN.id, ALPHA_CENTAURI.id], totalPc: 1.34, longestHopPc: 1.34 }, neededRangePc: null });
+    answers[0]({ route: { stars: [SUN.id, ALPHA_CENTAURI.id], totalPc: 1.34, longestHopPc: 1.34 }, neededRangePc: null, gaveUp: false, least: true });
     await flushAsync();
 
     expect(component.routeResult()?.stars.map((star) => star.id)).toEqual([SUN.id, PROXIMA.id]);
     expect(component.routePending()).toBe(false);
+
+    // "It gave up" travels to the panel, which says something else for it than for "there is none".
+    component.onRouteRequested({ fromId: SUN.id, toId: ALPHA_CENTAURI.id, rangePc: 0.5 });
+    answers[2]({ route: null, neededRangePc: null, gaveUp: true, least: false });
+    await flushAsync();
+    expect(component.routeResult()).toMatchObject({ stars: [], gaveUp: true });
   });
 
   it('releases the routes panel when a route cannot be worked out, so it can be tried again', async () => {
diff --git a/src/app/features/galaxy-system/galaxy-system-scene.component.ts b/src/app/features/galaxy-system/galaxy-system-scene.component.ts
index 971993d..51c8a40 100644
--- a/src/app/features/galaxy-system/galaxy-system-scene.component.ts
+++ b/src/app/features/galaxy-system/galaxy-system-scene.component.ts
@@ -70,8 +70,21 @@ const LABEL_MAX_COUNT = 15;
 const LABEL_MIN_SEPARATION_NDC = 0.12;
 /** Beyond this the text of a right-hand label would run off the view: hang it on the left. */
 const LABEL_EDGE_NDC = 0.7;
+/**
+ * How far a ring label has to sit from a star's name, in NDC — half what two star names keep
+ * between them, as a clearance around the anchor and as the height of the row its text occupies.
+ * A ring label is one short line, and the rungs of its ladder are a twentieth of the screen apart,
+ * so the full separation would have one name clear three rungs.
+ */
+const RING_LABEL_CLEARANCE_NDC = LABEL_MIN_SEPARATION_NDC / 2;
 /** How far right of its point a label's text reaches, in aspect-scaled NDC (~135px at 1440). */
 const LABEL_REACH_NDC = 0.3;
+/**
+ * The same for a ring label, which is shorter: "1.5 kpc" with "Survey edge" under it is the widest
+ * of them, about 100px at 1440. Measuring those as a star name's width rejected rungs a hand's
+ * breadth clear of it.
+ */
+const RING_LABEL_REACH_NDC = 0.23;
 /**
  * How long the range control has to be still before the graph is rebuilt at its value, since a drag
  * emits per pixel; and how often at most a view on the move gets a graph for its new drawn stars.
@@ -194,10 +207,11 @@ const GALACTIC_FAR_PC = 250000;
  */
 const SURVEY_EDGE_PC = 250;
 /**
- * The local grid's rings are distances from the Sun, at a round step that follows the camera:
- * five of them out to about the camera's own distance, so 50 to 250 pc from the opening view and
- * 2 to 10 pc from beside the Sun. A fixed set could only serve one end of the zoom: 50 pc rings
- * say nothing from inside a 2 pc hop, and nothing marked the stars now drawn past 250 pc.
+ * How many rings the local grid aims for: the step is rounded down from a fifth of how far the
+ * frame reaches from the Sun, which makes five to fourteen of them. So 50 to 350 pc from the
+ * opening view, and 2 to 10 pc from beside the Sun. A fixed set could only serve one end of the
+ * zoom: 50 pc rings say nothing from inside a 2 pc hop, and nothing marked the stars now drawn
+ * past 250 pc.
  */
 const LOCAL_GRID_RING_COUNT = 5;
 const LOCAL_GRID_SPOKES = 12;
@@ -614,7 +628,7 @@ export class GalaxySystemSceneComponent implements AfterViewInit, OnDestroy {
       centre: new THREE.Vector3(centre.x, centre.y, centre.z),
       emphasisRadii: [SUN_GALACTOCENTRIC_RADIUS_PC]
     });
-    this.setLocalGridRadii(distanceRings(GALAXY_OVERVIEW_POSITION.length(), LOCAL_GRID_RING_COUNT, SURVEY_EDGE_PC));
+    this.setLocalGridRadii(distanceRings(0, GALAXY_OVERVIEW_POSITION.length(), LOCAL_GRID_RING_COUNT, SURVEY_EDGE_PC));
     // A fixed set rather than whatever is currently labelled: a tether that appears and vanishes
     // as the camera drifts reads as a glitch.
     this.tethers = new TetherField(TETHERED_STAR_COUNT);
@@ -912,11 +926,46 @@ export class GalaxySystemSceneComponent implements AfterViewInit, OnDestroy {
     }
   }
 
+  /**
+   * The ring labels worth drawing: the ones on screen, and clear of the star names already placed.
+   *
+   * Not held apart from each other, as the star names are: they are a ladder up one ray, a few
+   * hundredths of the screen apart, and reading them in order is the point. What they must not do
+   * is sit on a star's name, which is worth more than a distance — or be handed to the overlay
+   * from beside the camera, which CSS2DRenderer places past the edge of the container rather than
+   * hiding, since all it tests is depth.
+   *
+   * A name is a line of text hanging to one side of its point, about 135 px of it, not the point:
+   * two anchors a tenth of the screen apart still print one inside the other. So the test is
+   * against the span the name occupies, with the anchors' own clearance kept for the pair whose
+   * text runs the other way.
+   */
+  private ringLabelsInTheClear(candidates: readonly LabeledPoint[], camera: SceneCamera, stars: readonly LabeledPoint[]): LabeledPoint[] {
+    const projected = new THREE.Vector3();
+    const onScreen = (label: LabeledPoint): THREE.Vector2 | null => {
+      projected.set(label.x, label.y, label.z).project(camera);
+      const outside = projected.z < -1 || projected.z > 1 || Math.abs(projected.x) > 1 || Math.abs(projected.y) > 1;
+      return outside ? null : new THREE.Vector2(projected.x * this.viewportAspect(), projected.y);
+    };
+    const taken = stars
+      .map((star) => ({ at: onScreen(star), side: star.side }))
+      .filter((name): name is { at: THREE.Vector2; side: LabelSide | undefined } => name.at !== null)
+      .map(({ at, side }) => ({ at, from: side === 'left' ? at.x - LABEL_REACH_NDC : at.x, to: side === 'left' ? at.x : at.x + LABEL_REACH_NDC }));
+    return candidates.filter((label) => {
+      const point = onScreen(label);
+      // Ring labels hang right, as `applyPresentation` leaves anything with no side of its own.
+      return (
+        point !== null &&
+        !taken.some(
+          (name) =>
+            name.at.distanceTo(point) < RING_LABEL_CLEARANCE_NDC ||
+            (Math.abs(name.at.y - point.y) < RING_LABEL_CLEARANCE_NDC && name.from < point.x + RING_LABEL_REACH_NDC && point.x < name.to)
+        )
+      );
+    });
+  }
+
   private updateLabels(camera: SceneCamera): void {
-    const radii = distanceRings(this.effectiveDistance(camera), LOCAL_GRID_RING_COUNT, SURVEY_EDGE_PC);
-    if (radii.join() !== this.localGridRadii.join()) {
-      this.setLocalGridRadii(radii);
-    }
     const selectedId = this.navigationStore.selectedStarId();
     // Measured from what the camera is looking at, not from where it is. Those differ by the
     // orbit distance, so a camera-relative rule names the stars closest to the near edge of the
@@ -928,6 +977,31 @@ export class GalaxySystemSceneComponent implements AfterViewInit, OnDestroy {
     // Individual star names mean nothing once the whole Galaxy is in frame — at that range the
     // entire catalogue is inside one pixel — so the labels hand over to the structural ones.
     const isGalactic = this.galacticStrength >= GALACTIC_LEVEL_THRESHOLD;
+    // The rings are distances from the Sun, so what they have to cover is how far from the Sun the
+    // frame reaches: where the view is centred, plus how far out the camera is orbiting it. Under
+    // the plan view the orbit distance is the frame's own extent, since that is what the wheel
+    // moves there. Read as "how far the camera is from the Sun" instead, panning away from the Sun
+    // and flipping to the plan view left every ring off the frame.
+    // Rebuilt only while the grid is drawn: each new set disposes the old rings and builds every
+    // vertex of the new ones, and the set changes on any zoom that crosses a round step.
+    if (!isGalactic && this.display().grid) {
+      const orbitPc = this.engine.currentProjection === 'perspective' ? camera.position.distanceTo(target) : this.effectiveDistance(camera);
+      // Half the frame's diagonal, at the depth it is centred on: how near the Sun the frame
+      // reaches, as well as how far. A step sized to the far edge alone is no use to a frame that
+      // does not contain the Sun — 20 pc rings for a view of a 19 pc band at 190 pc drew none of
+      // them on screen, and the ladder of labels went with them.
+      const frameRadiusPc = this.engine.visibleHalfHeight(orbitPc) * Math.hypot(1, this.viewportAspect());
+      // Measured in the plane the rings lie in, not through it: a ring of radius r passes within
+      // `|r - p|` of the view's centre, where p is how far out the centre is *along the plane*. For
+      // a target above it the two differ by its height, which would put the band around a radius no
+      // ring has — and `ringLabels` compares its own in-plane bearing against the innermost.
+      const normal = galacticNormal();
+      const inPlanePc = target.clone().addScaledVector(normal, -target.dot(normal)).length();
+      const radii = distanceRings(Math.max(0, inPlanePc - frameRadiusPc), inPlanePc + orbitPc, LOCAL_GRID_RING_COUNT, SURVEY_EDGE_PC);
+      if (radii.join() !== this.localGridRadii.join()) {
+        this.setLocalGridRadii(radii);
+      }
+    }
     // Brightest first, not nearest first. Proximity was the right ranking when the catalogue was
     // a 50 pc bubble and everything in it was equally worth naming; across 250 pc it labels a
     // clump of whatever happens to be closest to the middle of the screen and never names the
@@ -944,7 +1018,7 @@ export class GalaxySystemSceneComponent implements AfterViewInit, OnDestroy {
     };
     const starLabels: LabeledPoint[] = isGalactic ? [] : this.spreadLabels(candidates(this.stars, this.starsByBrightness), camera, selectedId);
     const backdropLabels = isGalactic ? this.galacticLabels : this.deepSkyLabels;
-    const ringLabels = isGalactic || !this.display().grid ? [] : this.ringLabels(camera);
+    const ringLabels = isGalactic || !this.display().grid ? [] : this.ringLabelsInTheClear(this.ringLabels(camera), camera, starLabels);
     this.labelOverlay?.update([...starLabels, ...ringLabels, ...backdropLabels]);
   }
 
@@ -1528,7 +1602,7 @@ export class GalaxySystemSceneComponent implements AfterViewInit, OnDestroy {
     const request = ++this.routeRequest;
     this.routePending.set(true);
     void this.routing.route(fromId, toId, rangePc, ROUTE_RANGE_CEILING_PC).then(
-      ({ route, neededRangePc }) => {
+      ({ route, neededRangePc, gaveUp, least }) => {
         if (request !== this.routeRequest) {
           return;
         }
@@ -1536,7 +1610,9 @@ export class GalaxySystemSceneComponent implements AfterViewInit, OnDestroy {
         this.routeResult.set({
           stars: route ? route.stars.map((id) => ({ id, name: this.starsById.get(id)?.name ?? `Star ${id}` })) : [],
           totalPc: route?.totalPc ?? 0,
-          neededRangePc
+          neededRangePc,
+          gaveUp,
+          least
         });
         this.jumpLinks?.setRoute(route?.stars ?? [], (id) => this.starsById.get(id));
       },
diff --git a/src/app/features/galaxy-system/routing-client.spec.ts b/src/app/features/galaxy-system/routing-client.spec.ts
index 2d05f31..feca7df 100644
--- a/src/app/features/galaxy-system/routing-client.spec.ts
+++ b/src/app/features/galaxy-system/routing-client.spec.ts
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ describe('RoutingClient without a worker', () => {
   it('answers a route from the index it was given', async () => {
     const client = new RoutingClient(STARS, POSITIONS, index);
 
-    await expect(client.route(100, 104, 1.5, 8)).resolves.toEqual({ route: routeBetween(index, 100, 104, 1.5), neededRangePc: null });
+    await expect(client.route(100, 104, 1.5, 8)).resolves.toEqual({ route: routeBetween(index, 100, 104, 1.5).route, neededRangePc: null, gaveUp: false, least: true });
     client.dispose();
   });
 
@@ -143,8 +143,8 @@ describe('RoutingClient with a worker', () => {
     await expect(first).resolves.toHaveLength(6);
 
     const routeRequest = worker.requests[1];
-    worker.answer({ kind: 'route', requestId: routeRequest.requestId, route: null, neededRangePc: 4 });
-    await expect(route).resolves.toEqual({ route: null, neededRangePc: 4 });
+    worker.answer({ kind: 'route', requestId: routeRequest.requestId, route: null, neededRangePc: 4, gaveUp: false, least: true });
+    await expect(route).resolves.toEqual({ route: null, neededRangePc: 4, gaveUp: false, least: true });
     await flush();
 
     expect(worker.requests.map((request) => (request.kind === 'links' ? request.rangePc : request.kind))).toEqual([5, 'route', 8]);
@@ -161,14 +161,14 @@ describe('RoutingClient with a worker', () => {
     const widerRange = client.route(100, 104, 2.5, 8);
 
     expect(worker.requests).toHaveLength(1);
-    worker.answer({ kind: 'route', requestId: worker.requests[0].requestId, route: null, neededRangePc: 4 });
+    worker.answer({ kind: 'route', requestId: worker.requests[0].requestId, route: null, neededRangePc: 4, gaveUp: false, least: true });
 
     expect(await again).toEqual(await once);
     await flush();
     // The same two stars at another range is another question.
     expect(worker.requests.map((request) => request.rangePc)).toEqual([1.5, 2.5]);
-    worker.answer({ kind: 'route', requestId: worker.requests[1].requestId, route: null, neededRangePc: null });
-    await expect(widerRange).resolves.toEqual({ route: null, neededRangePc: null });
+    worker.answer({ kind: 'route', requestId: worker.requests[1].requestId, route: null, neededRangePc: null, gaveUp: false, least: true });
+    await expect(widerRange).resolves.toEqual({ route: null, neededRangePc: null, gaveUp: false, least: true });
     client.dispose();
   });
 
@@ -218,6 +218,16 @@ describe('RoutingClient with a worker', () => {
     client.dispose();
   });
 
+  it('hands on that the search gave up, along with the answer it did give', async () => {
+    const { client, worker } = clientWithFake();
+    const answer = client.route(100, 105, 1.5, 8);
+
+    worker.answer({ kind: 'route', requestId: worker.requests[0].requestId, route: null, neededRangePc: null, gaveUp: true, least: false });
+
+    await expect(answer).resolves.toEqual({ route: null, neededRangePc: null, gaveUp: true, least: false });
+    client.dispose();
+  });
+
   it('rejects a request the worker failed on, and goes on to the next', async () => {
     const { client, worker } = clientWithFake();
     const failing = client.route(100, 104, 1.5, 8).catch((error: unknown) => error);
@@ -240,7 +250,7 @@ describe('RoutingClient with a worker', () => {
 
     worker.fail();
 
-    await expect(route).resolves.toEqual({ route: routeBetween(index, 100, 104, 1.5), neededRangePc: null });
+    await expect(route).resolves.toEqual({ route: routeBetween(index, 100, 104, 1.5).route, neededRangePc: null, gaveUp: false, least: true });
     expect(Array.from(await graph)).toEqual([0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0]);
     await expect(client.route(100, 105, 1.5, 8)).resolves.toMatchObject({ route: null });
     expect(worker.terminated).toBe(true);
diff --git a/src/app/features/galaxy-system/routing-client.ts b/src/app/features/galaxy-system/routing-client.ts
index 3677913..d213093 100644
--- a/src/app/features/galaxy-system/routing-client.ts
+++ b/src/app/features/galaxy-system/routing-client.ts
@@ -6,6 +6,10 @@ import { StarRecord } from '../../shared/models/star.model';
 export interface RouteAnswer {
   readonly route: Route | null;
   readonly neededRangePc: number | null;
+  /** True when the search at the range asked for gave up rather than ruling a route out. */
+  readonly gaveUp: boolean;
+  /** True when the search for a range that would work looked everywhere up to the ceiling. */
+  readonly least: boolean;
 }
 
 /** A request dropped before it was sent, because a newer one of the same kind replaced it. */
@@ -104,7 +108,9 @@ export class RoutingClient {
 
   route(fromId: number, toId: number, rangePc: number, ceilingPc: number): Promise<RouteAnswer> {
     return this.ask({ kind: 'route', requestId: this.nextRequestId++, fromId, toId, rangePc, ceilingPc }).then((response) =>
-      response.kind === 'route' ? { route: response.route, neededRangePc: response.neededRangePc } : { route: null, neededRangePc: null }
+      response.kind === 'route'
+        ? { route: response.route, neededRangePc: response.neededRangePc, gaveUp: response.gaveUp, least: response.least }
+        : { route: null, neededRangePc: null, gaveUp: false, least: false }
     );
   }
 
diff --git a/src/app/features/hud/hud-dock.component.spec.ts b/src/app/features/hud/hud-dock.component.spec.ts
index 755bf9c..1438892 100644
--- a/src/app/features/hud/hud-dock.component.spec.ts
+++ b/src/app/features/hud/hud-dock.component.spec.ts
@@ -289,7 +289,7 @@ describe('HudDockComponent', () => {
 
     // The offer beside a refusal is the same request by another route, so it is held to the same
     // test: moving the range with nothing to plot leaves the panel contradicting itself.
-    fixture.componentRef.setInput('routeResult', { stars: [], totalPc: 0, neededRangePc: 1.8, gaveUp: false });
+    fixture.componentRef.setInput('routeResult', { stars: [], totalPc: 0, neededRangePc: 1.8, gaveUp: false, least: true });
     fixture.detectChanges();
     const offer = () => host().querySelector<HTMLButtonElement>('[data-testid="route-summary"] button')!;
     expect(offer().disabled).toBe(false);
@@ -312,6 +312,33 @@ describe('HudDockComponent', () => {
     expect(host().querySelector('#dock-panel-display')?.classList.contains('hud-acquire')).toBe(true);
   });
 
+  it('says the search gave up rather than that there is no route, when that is what happened', () => {
+    fixture.componentRef.setInput('routing', true);
+    fixture.componentRef.setInput('defaultTab', 'routes');
+    const summary = () => host().querySelector('[data-testid="route-summary"]')?.textContent?.replace(/\s+/g, ' ').trim() ?? '';
+
+    fixture.componentRef.setInput('routeResult', { stars: [], totalPc: 0, neededRangePc: null, gaveUp: true, least: false });
+    fixture.detectChanges();
+    expect(summary()).toBe('Too many stars to search at this range.');
+
+    // Having looked everywhere the range reaches is a different answer, and one that can be stated.
+    fixture.componentRef.setInput('routeResult', { stars: [], totalPc: 0, neededRangePc: null, gaveUp: false, least: true });
+    fixture.detectChanges();
+    expect(summary()).toContain('No chain of jumps up to');
+
+    // A range a chain was found at is worth offering — but the search that gave up at the range
+    // asked for still gave up, and saying "no route" beside the offer is saying it did not.
+    fixture.componentRef.setInput('routeResult', { stars: [], totalPc: 0, neededRangePc: 6.4, gaveUp: true, least: false });
+    fixture.detectChanges();
+    expect(summary()).toBe('Too many stars to search at this range. 6.40 pc would reach.');
+
+    // The other way round: the range asked for was searched to exhaustion and the wider search was
+    // the one that gave up. There is no route at this range, and nothing further can be claimed.
+    fixture.componentRef.setInput('routeResult', { stars: [], totalPc: 0, neededRangePc: null, gaveUp: false, least: false });
+    fixture.detectChanges();
+    expect(summary()).toBe('No route at this range.');
+  });
+
   it('keeps what the Routes panel was set to across a trip to another tab', () => {
     setReadout();
     fixture.componentRef.setInput('routing', true);
diff --git a/src/app/features/hud/routes-panel.component.ts b/src/app/features/hud/routes-panel.component.ts
index a234c1d..9d17f5f 100644
--- a/src/app/features/hud/routes-panel.component.ts
+++ b/src/app/features/hud/routes-panel.component.ts
@@ -20,8 +20,12 @@ export interface RouteResult {
   /** The chain, departure first. Empty when there is no route at the range asked for. */
   readonly stars: readonly { id: number; name: string }[];
   readonly totalPc: number;
-  /** The shortest range that would open a route, where none was found at the one asked for. */
+  /** A range that would open a route, where none was found at the one asked for. */
   readonly neededRangePc: number | null;
+  /** True when the search gave up rather than showing there is no route at this range. */
+  readonly gaveUp: boolean;
+  /** True when the search for a range that would work looked everywhere up to the widest offered. */
+  readonly least: boolean;
 }
 
 export interface RouteRequest {
@@ -113,7 +117,11 @@ type Field = 'from' | 'to';
             </p>
           } @else {
             <p data-testid="route-summary" class="text-sm text-muted">
-              No route at this range.
+              @if (plotted.gaveUp) {
+                Too many stars to search at this range.
+              } @else {
+                No route at this range.
+              }
               @if (plotted.neededRangePc !== null) {
                 <button
                   type="button"
@@ -123,7 +131,7 @@ type Field = 'from' | 'to';
                 >
                   {{ format(plotted.neededRangePc) }} would reach.
                 </button>
-              } @else {
+              } @else if (plotted.least) {
                 No chain of jumps up to {{ format(maxRangePc) }} reaches it.
               }
             </p>
diff --git a/src/app/shared/astro/jump-links.spec.ts b/src/app/shared/astro/jump-links.spec.ts
index b070a93..420da4a 100644
--- a/src/app/shared/astro/jump-links.spec.ts
+++ b/src/app/shared/astro/jump-links.spec.ts
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ function index(points: StarPoint[]): StarNeighbourhood {
 
 describe('routeBetween', () => {
   it('walks the chain a hop at a time when that is all the range allows', () => {
-    const route = routeBetween(chain(5), 0, 4, 1.5);
+    const { route } = routeBetween(chain(5), 0, 4, 1.5);
 
     expect(route?.stars).toEqual([0, 1, 2, 3, 4]);
     expect(route?.totalPc).toBeCloseTo(4);
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ describe('routeBetween', () => {
   it('goes straight there when the range reaches, however many stars lie between', () => {
     // The direct crossing is never longer than a chain through anything — Euclid says so — so a
     // range that covers it makes it the answer, and the stars in between are just scenery.
-    const route = routeBetween(chain(5), 0, 4, 5);
+    const { route } = routeBetween(chain(5), 0, 4, 5);
 
     expect(route?.stars).toEqual([0, 4]);
     expect(route?.totalPc).toBeCloseTo(4);
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ describe('routeBetween', () => {
   it('picks the shorter of two ways round when neither is a straight line', () => {
     // 0 to 3 is 10 pc, out of a 6 pc range. Two ways round, both inside it: through 1, barely
     // off the line, or through 2, well off it. Shorter is what "the way there" means.
-    const route = routeBetween(
+    const { route } = routeBetween(
       index([
         { id: 0, x: 0, y: 0, z: 0 },
         { id: 1, x: 5, y: 0.5, z: 0 },
@@ -56,19 +56,19 @@ describe('routeBetween', () => {
       { id: 2, x: 20, y: 0, z: 0 }
     ]);
 
-    expect(routeBetween(split, 0, 2, 5)).toBeNull();
+    expect(routeBetween(split, 0, 2, 5)).toEqual({ route: null, gaveUp: false });
   });
 
   it('answers nothing for a star that is not there, or for going nowhere', () => {
     const line = chain(3);
 
-    expect(routeBetween(line, 0, 0, 2)).toBeNull();
-    expect(routeBetween(line, 0, 99, 2)).toBeNull();
-    expect(routeBetween(line, 0, 2, 0)).toBeNull();
+    expect(routeBetween(line, 0, 0, 2).route).toBeNull();
+    expect(routeBetween(line, 0, 99, 2).route).toBeNull();
+    expect(routeBetween(line, 0, 2, 0).route).toBeNull();
   });
 
   it('reports the longest hop, which is what the range has to cover', () => {
-    const route = routeBetween(
+    const { route } = routeBetween(
       index([
         { id: 0, x: 0, y: 0, z: 0 },
         { id: 1, x: 1, y: 0, z: 0 },
@@ -82,11 +82,32 @@ describe('routeBetween', () => {
     expect(route?.longestHopPc).toBeCloseTo(4);
   });
 
+  it('says it gave up rather than that there is no chain, once it has spent its budget', { timeout: 30_000 }, () => {
+    // Nothing reaches the island, but the crowd around the departure is larger than the budget, so
+    // the search stops without having looked everywhere the range reaches. Read as "no chain", that
+    // is a confident wrong answer — and the range search downstream would build on it.
+    // Cells sized for the range asked of them, as the real catalogue's are: a search that settles
+    // 40 000 stars scans every cell it touches 40 000 times.
+    const search = routeBetween(knotAndChain(1.5), 0, ISLAND, 1.5);
+
+    expect(search.route).toBeNull();
+    expect(search.gaveUp).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it('reports a dead end proved with the last star of the budget as a dead end, not a give-up', () => {
+    // Exactly the budget's worth of stars reach each other, and the destination is not among them.
+    // The search does look everywhere the range reaches, so "no chain" is what it found — but the
+    // set is full at the end of it, and a budget read off the settled count says it gave up.
+    const search = routeBetween(budgetExactly(), 0, BUDGET_ISLAND, 1.5);
+
+    expect(search).toEqual({ route: null, gaveUp: false });
+  });
+
   it('heads for the destination rather than exhausting a dense knot around the departure', () => {
     // The Gaia catalogue in miniature: a crowd around the departure, larger than the search's
     // budget, with the only way on a thin chain leading out of it. A search widening evenly from
     // the departure spends the budget on the crowd and never reaches the chain's far end.
-    const route = routeBetween(knotAndChain(), 0, CHAIN_END, 1.5);
+    const { route } = routeBetween(knotAndChain(), 0, CHAIN_END, 1.5);
 
     expect(route).not.toBeNull();
     expect(route!.stars[route!.stars.length - 1]).toBe(CHAIN_END);
@@ -95,24 +116,73 @@ describe('routeBetween', () => {
 });
 
 /**
- * 21 000 stars scattered through the 30 pc cube around the origin, about ten times the density
- * around the real Sun and more than a search's budget, with a chain a parsec a hop running along
- * x from the origin out through the crowd and on to 75 pc.
+ * 45 000 stars scattered through the 30 pc cube around the origin, twenty times the density around
+ * the real Sun and more than a search's budget, with a chain a parsec a hop running along x from
+ * the origin out through the crowd and on to 75 pc — and one star at 500 pc that nothing reaches.
  */
 const CHAIN_END = 75;
-function knotAndChain(): StarNeighbourhood {
+const ISLAND = 999;
+function knotAndChain(cellSizePc?: number): StarNeighbourhood {
   let seed = 7;
   const random = () => ((seed = (seed * 1103515245 + 12345) % 2147483648) / 2147483648) * 30 - 15;
-  const knot: StarPoint[] = Array.from({ length: 21000 }, (_, i) => ({ id: 1000 + i, x: random(), y: random(), z: random() }));
+  const knot: StarPoint[] = Array.from({ length: 45000 }, (_, i) => ({ id: 1000 + i, x: random(), y: random(), z: random() }));
   const chainOut: StarPoint[] = Array.from({ length: CHAIN_END }, (_, i) => ({ id: i + 1, x: i + 1, y: 0, z: 0 }));
-  return index([{ id: 0, x: 0, y: 0, z: 0 }, ...knot, ...chainOut]);
+  return new StarNeighbourhood([{ id: 0, x: 0, y: 0, z: 0 }, ...knot, ...chainOut, { id: ISLAND, x: 500, y: 0, z: 0 }], cellSizePc);
+}
+
+/**
+ * Exactly a search's budget of stars that reach one another — 40 000 a parsec apart along x, which
+ * a 1.5 pc range walks end to end — and one 500 pc off that line, which nothing reaches. The dead
+ * end is real and the search proves it, with the last star it is allowed.
+ *
+ * A line rather than a crowd because the count has to be exact: a random cloud dense enough to
+ * connect leaves clumps the departure never reaches, and 39 662 of 40 000 settled is a budget that
+ * was never spent.
+ */
+const BUDGET_ISLAND = 99_999;
+function budgetExactly(): StarNeighbourhood {
+  const line: StarPoint[] = Array.from({ length: 40_000 }, (_, i) => ({ id: i, x: i, y: 0, z: 0 }));
+  return new StarNeighbourhood([...line, { id: BUDGET_ISLAND, x: 0, y: 500, z: 0 }], 1.5);
+}
+
+/**
+ * 45 000 stars in a 10 pc cube — dense enough to stay one connected piece at half a parsec, where
+ * walking it costs more than a search's budget — with a chain a parsec a hop leaving its edge for
+ * 30 pc. Its cells are sized for the ranges asked of it, as the real catalogue's are for its own.
+ */
+const CROWD_CHAIN_END = 25;
+const CROWD_ISLAND = 999999;
+function crowdedKnot(): StarNeighbourhood {
+  let seed = 11;
+  const random = () => ((seed = (seed * 1103515245 + 12345) % 2147483648) / 2147483648) * 10 - 5;
+  const knot: StarPoint[] = Array.from({ length: 45000 }, (_, i) => ({ id: 1000 + i, x: random(), y: random(), z: random() }));
+  const chainOut: StarPoint[] = Array.from({ length: CROWD_CHAIN_END }, (_, i) => ({ id: i + 1, x: 5 + i + 1, y: 0, z: 0 }));
+  // One star nothing reaches, for the questions that have no answer.
+  return new StarNeighbourhood([{ id: 0, x: 0, y: 0, z: 0 }, ...knot, ...chainOut, { id: CROWD_ISLAND, x: 500, y: 0, z: 0 }], 0.25);
 }
 
 describe('minimumRangeBetween', () => {
   it('works out the range past a dense knot around the departure', () => {
     // Past the crowd the chain's hops of a parsec are the only way on, so a parsec is the
     // answer, to the half-step the panel rounds up to.
-    expect(minimumRangeBetween(knotAndChain(), 0, CHAIN_END, 8)).toBeCloseTo(1, 1);
+    expect(minimumRangeBetween(knotAndChain(), 0, CHAIN_END, 8).rangePc).toBeCloseTo(1, 1);
+  });
+
+  it('stops bisecting where a search gave up, and hands back a range that does work', { timeout: 30_000 }, () => {
+    // Below the chain's own hop of a parsec, the crowd is still one connected piece and larger than
+    // the budget, so those probes give up. Reading a give-up as "no chain at this range" is what
+    // used to report ranges up to 29% wider than needed, and went on paying for probes whose
+    // answers it could not use; the answer now is the narrowest range a chain was found at.
+    const knot = crowdedKnot();
+
+    const needed = minimumRangeBetween(knot, 0, CROWD_CHAIN_END, 1.2);
+
+    expect(needed.least).toBe(false);
+    expect(needed.rangePc).not.toBeNull();
+    expect(routeBetween(knot, 0, CROWD_CHAIN_END, needed.rangePc!).route).not.toBeNull();
+    // Narrower than the ceiling's own route, too: stopping before the bisection has found a range
+    // of its own hands back the ceiling, which is the control's maximum — the question, not an answer.
+    expect(needed.rangePc!).toBeLessThan(routeBetween(knot, 0, CROWD_CHAIN_END, 1.2).route!.longestHopPc);
   });
 
   it('names the shortest range that opens a way through', () => {
@@ -123,9 +193,9 @@ describe('minimumRangeBetween', () => {
       { id: 2, x: 5, y: 0, z: 0 }
     ]);
 
-    expect(minimumRangeBetween(stepped, 0, 2, 50)).toBeCloseTo(4);
-    expect(routeBetween(stepped, 0, 2, 4)).not.toBeNull();
-    expect(routeBetween(stepped, 0, 2, 3.99)).toBeNull();
+    expect(minimumRangeBetween(stepped, 0, 2, 50)).toEqual({ rangePc: expect.closeTo(4) as number, least: true });
+    expect(routeBetween(stepped, 0, 2, 4).route).not.toBeNull();
+    expect(routeBetween(stepped, 0, 2, 3.99).route).toBeNull();
   });
 
   it('prefers a longer way whose worst hop is shorter, since that is what the range pays for', () => {
@@ -139,8 +209,16 @@ describe('minimumRangeBetween', () => {
 
     const needed = minimumRangeBetween(both, 0, 3, 50);
 
-    expect(needed).toBeLessThan(10);
-    expect(routeBetween(both, 0, 3, needed!)).not.toBeNull();
+    expect(needed.rangePc).toBeLessThan(10);
+    expect(routeBetween(both, 0, 3, needed.rangePc!).route).not.toBeNull();
+  });
+
+  it('claims nothing about a ceiling its own search gave up on', () => {
+    // Nothing reaches the island at any range here, but the crowd spends the budget first, so the
+    // widest search proves nothing — and neither does the null it hands back.
+    const needed = minimumRangeBetween(crowdedKnot(), 0, CROWD_ISLAND, 0.5);
+
+    expect(needed).toEqual({ rangePc: null, least: false });
   });
 
   it('finds nothing when even the ceiling does not reach', () => {
@@ -149,7 +227,7 @@ describe('minimumRangeBetween', () => {
       { id: 1, x: 100, y: 0, z: 0 }
     ]);
 
-    expect(minimumRangeBetween(split, 0, 1, 50)).toBeNull();
+    expect(minimumRangeBetween(split, 0, 1, 50)).toEqual({ rangePc: null, least: true });
   });
 });
 
@@ -296,7 +374,7 @@ describe('jumpLinkSegments', () => {
 
     const drawn = new Set(linksDrawn(jumpLinkSegments(cloud, range), points));
 
-    const route = routeBetween(cloud, 0, 119, range);
+    const { route } = routeBetween(cloud, 0, 119, range);
     // Asserted, not guarded: a skipped body would let the two disagree unnoticed.
     expect(route).not.toBeNull();
     expect(route!.stars.length).toBeGreaterThan(2);
diff --git a/src/app/shared/astro/jump-links.ts b/src/app/shared/astro/jump-links.ts
index fca2f03..3aa3bbc 100644
--- a/src/app/shared/astro/jump-links.ts
+++ b/src/app/shared/astro/jump-links.ts
@@ -16,6 +16,21 @@
 
 import { StarNeighbourhood } from './star-neighbourhood';
 
+/** What a search found, and whether it looked everywhere the range reaches before answering. */
+export interface RouteSearch {
+  readonly route: Route | null;
+  /** True when the search spent its budget: "no route" then means "gave up", not "there is none". */
+  readonly gaveUp: boolean;
+}
+
+/** A range that opens a route, and whether anything shorter was actually ruled out. */
+export interface RangeSearch {
+  /** A range a chain was found at, or `null` where none was found up to the ceiling. */
+  readonly rangePc: number | null;
+  /** True when every shorter range was searched to exhaustion, so this is the least that works. */
+  readonly least: boolean;
+}
+
 /** A chain of stars from one to another, each hop within the range that was asked for. */
 export interface Route {
   /** Star ids, departure first and destination last. One hop is two ids. */
@@ -30,11 +45,17 @@ export interface Route {
 }
 
 /**
- * A cap on how much of the catalogue one search may walk. A search that hits it has already
- * visited more stars than any real chain passes through: the longest measured, Sol to HD 2626 at
- * 236 pc in jumps of 8 pc, settles about 7 000.
+ * A cap on how much of the catalogue one search may walk, so a hopeless question cannot run for
+ * ever. It is a budget, not a verdict: a search that spends it has proved nothing, and says so
+ * through {@link RouteSearch.gaveUp}.
+ *
+ * Sized against the catalogue actually shipped rather than against the longest route. At 20 000 a
+ * search from the Sun to HD 120147 (136 pc) in jumps of 5 pc gave up, though the chain it wanted,
+ * 50 jumps, is there to be found; a star at 170 pc needed 58. Both are found at this budget. The
+ * cost is paid by questions with no answer, which walk the whole of it: from the Sun to the
+ * farthest star at 8 pc, 0.7 s at 20 000 against 2.1 s here, in the worker.
  */
-const MAX_VISITED = 20000;
+const MAX_VISITED = 40000;
 
 /**
  * How close to the true minimum `minimumRangeBetween` works a range out: half the Routes panel's
@@ -43,6 +64,23 @@ const MAX_VISITED = 20000;
  */
 const RANGE_RESOLUTION_PC = 0.05;
 
+/**
+ * How many of `minimumRangeBetween`'s probes may give up, once it has a range of its own, before it
+ * answers with what it has — and how many before it has one.
+ *
+ * A probe that finds a route is quick — it heads straight for the destination — while one that
+ * gives up walks the whole search budget, about two seconds on the real catalogue. Those are also
+ * the probes that buy the least: they cannot rule anything out. Two of them is the difference
+ * between an answer of 7.96 pc in half a second and 5.76 pc in seventeen, for a star at 236 pc; it
+ * lands on 5.97 pc in five.
+ *
+ * Until a probe succeeds there is nothing to answer with but the ceiling route's own longest hop,
+ * which is the control's maximum, so the bound is looser there — but a bound, since the search is
+ * one the panel waits on: five probes, ten seconds, rather than the resolution's own eight.
+ */
+const MAX_RANGE_GIVE_UPS = 2;
+const MAX_UNEARNED_GIVE_UPS = 5;
+
 /** A binary min-heap of star ids by priority. Duplicates are allowed; stale ones are skipped on the way out. */
 class Frontier {
   private readonly ids: number[] = [];
@@ -113,8 +151,8 @@ function rebuild(cameFrom: Map<number, number>, fromId: number, toId: number): n
 }
 
 /**
- * The shortest chain from one star to another in which no single hop exceeds `rangePc`, or
- * `null` where the catalogue holds no such chain.
+ * The shortest chain from one star to another in which no single hop exceeds `rangePc`, or no
+ * chain where the catalogue holds none within the search's budget.
  *
  * Shortest by total distance travelled rather than by number of hops: two chains of the same
  * length are not equally good, and the one that covers less ground is the one a reader means by
@@ -126,12 +164,15 @@ function rebuild(cameFrom: Map<number, number>, fromId: number, toId: number): n
  * than widening evenly in every direction. Widening evenly is what the Gaia catalogue broke. From
  * the Sun it spent its whole budget on the 20 000 stars nearest, all inside about 40 pc, and so
  * found no route to anything farther at any range; Mirfak, 155 pc out, is 27 jumps at 8 pc.
+ *
+ * "No route" and "no chain" are not the same answer: a search that spends {@link MAX_VISITED}
+ * reports that it gave up, so nothing downstream reads it as proof that no chain exists.
  */
-export function routeBetween(index: StarNeighbourhood, fromId: number, toId: number, rangePc: number): Route | null {
+export function routeBetween(index: StarNeighbourhood, fromId: number, toId: number, rangePc: number): RouteSearch {
   const origin = index.point(fromId);
   const destination = index.point(toId);
   if (fromId === toId || rangePc <= 0 || !origin || !destination) {
-    return null;
+    return { route: null, gaveUp: false };
   }
   const straightLineOn = (x: number, y: number, z: number) => Math.hypot(destination.x - x, destination.y - y, destination.z - z);
 
@@ -145,24 +186,31 @@ export function routeBetween(index: StarNeighbourhood, fromId: number, toId: num
   const frontier = new Frontier();
   frontier.push(fromId, straightLineOn(origin.x, origin.y, origin.z));
 
-  while (frontier.size > 0 && settled.size < MAX_VISITED) {
+  let gaveUp = false;
+  while (frontier.size > 0) {
     const starId = frontier.pop();
     if (settled.has(starId)) {
       continue;
     }
+    // Counted against the budget only once the frontier has been drained of stale duplicates, so
+    // the flag below records why the search stopped rather than how full the set happened to be.
+    if (settled.size >= MAX_VISITED) {
+      gaveUp = true;
+      break;
+    }
     settled.add(starId);
     const costHere = travelled.get(starId)!;
 
     if (starId === toId) {
       const stars = rebuild(cameFrom, fromId, toId);
       if (stars.length === 0) {
-        return null;
+        return { route: null, gaveUp: false };
       }
       let longestHopPc = 0;
       for (let i = 1; i < stars.length; i++) {
         longestHopPc = Math.max(longestHopPc, hopTo.get(stars[i])!);
       }
-      return { stars, totalPc: costHere, longestHopPc };
+      return { route: { stars, totalPc: costHere, longestHopPc }, gaveUp: false };
     }
 
     index.forEachWithin(starId, rangePc, (neighbour, distancePc) => {
@@ -179,38 +227,60 @@ export function routeBetween(index: StarNeighbourhood, fromId: number, toId: num
     });
   }
 
-  return null;
+  // An empty frontier means the range reaches nothing further; a spent budget means only that the
+  // search stopped looking.
+  return { route: null, gaveUp };
 }
 
 /**
- * The shortest range at which any chain at all exists between two stars, to within
- * `RANGE_RESOLUTION_PC`, or `null` if none does within `ceilingPc`.
+ * A range at which a chain exists between two stars — the shortest, to within
+ * `RANGE_RESOLUTION_PC`, where every shorter range could be ruled out — or `null` where no chain
+ * was found up to `ceilingPc`.
  *
- * This is what turns "no route" from a dead end into an answer: the range control can be told
- * what it would have to be raised to. The exact figure is the minimax path, the chain whose
- * longest hop is as short as possible. It used to be searched for directly, widening from the
- * departure in order of the worst hop needed, which from the Sun meant exhausting the whole dense
- * core before anything farther could be reached: it gave up with nothing after up to a minute.
- * Whether a chain exists can only become truer as the range grows, so the range is bisected
- * instead, each step one directed `routeBetween`.
+ * This is what turns "no route" from a dead end into an answer: the range control can be told what
+ * it would have to be raised to. The figure aimed at is the minimax path, the chain whose longest
+ * hop is as short as possible. It used to be searched for directly, widening from the departure in
+ * order of the worst hop needed, which from the Sun meant exhausting the whole dense core before
+ * anything farther could be reached: it gave up with nothing after up to a minute. Whether a chain
+ * exists can only become truer as the range grows, so the range is bisected instead, each step one
+ * directed `routeBetween`.
+ *
+ * Each step has to answer "is there a chain at this range", and a search that gives up answers
+ * nothing. It is still worth carrying on from — the ranges above it are the ones left to try — but
+ * the result is no longer the least range, only a range that works, and `least` says which. The
+ * number of steps that may give up is bounded for the same reason: each one walks the whole budget,
+ * and 11 s of them for a star at 236 pc bought two decimal places nobody reads. Bounded more
+ * loosely before the bisection has found a range of its own, since until then the only range it
+ * could offer is the ceiling's, which is the control's maximum, for crossings that work well below
+ * it. See {@link MAX_RANGE_GIVE_UPS}.
  */
-export function minimumRangeBetween(index: StarNeighbourhood, fromId: number, toId: number, ceilingPc: number): number | null {
+export function minimumRangeBetween(index: StarNeighbourhood, fromId: number, toId: number, ceilingPc: number): RangeSearch {
   const widest = routeBetween(index, fromId, toId, ceilingPc);
-  if (!widest) {
-    return null;
+  if (!widest.route) {
+    return { rangePc: null, least: !widest.gaveUp };
   }
+  const ceilingHopPc = widest.route.longestHopPc;
   let unreachable = 0;
-  let reachable = widest.longestHopPc;
-  while (reachable - unreachable > RANGE_RESOLUTION_PC) {
+  let reachable = ceilingHopPc;
+  let giveUps = 0;
+  // While `reachable` is still the ceiling route's own longest hop the bisection has nothing of its
+  // own to answer with, and that figure sends the control to its maximum for a crossing that works
+  // well below — 8.00 pc for a star that routes at 6. So it is allowed more probes there, not
+  // unlimited ones: the panel is waiting on this.
+  while (reachable - unreachable > RANGE_RESOLUTION_PC && giveUps < (reachable === ceilingHopPc ? MAX_UNEARNED_GIVE_UPS : MAX_RANGE_GIVE_UPS)) {
     const range = (unreachable + reachable) / 2;
-    const route = routeBetween(index, fromId, toId, range);
+    const { route, gaveUp } = routeBetween(index, fromId, toId, range);
     if (route) {
       reachable = route.longestHopPc;
     } else {
+      // A search that gave up is worth going on from — the ranges above it are the ones left to
+      // try — but it is not evidence that nothing routes here, so the answer stops being the least.
       unreachable = range;
+      giveUps += gaveUp ? 1 : 0;
     }
   }
-  return reachable;
+  // Without a give-up the loop can only have ended by closing on the resolution, so that is the least.
+  return { rangePc: reachable, least: giveUps === 0 };
 }
 
 /** How much of a graph to keep: the links nearest a point, up to a total length. */
diff --git a/src/app/shared/astro/routing.spec.ts b/src/app/shared/astro/routing.spec.ts
index 8509a45..2b975ea 100644
--- a/src/app/shared/astro/routing.spec.ts
+++ b/src/app/shared/astro/routing.spec.ts
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest';
 
 import { jumpLinkSegments, minimumRangeBetween, routeBetween } from './jump-links';
 import { answerRouting, indexCatalogue } from './routing';
-import { StarNeighbourhood } from './star-neighbourhood';
+import { StarNeighbourhood, StarPoint } from './star-neighbourhood';
 
 /** Stars a parsec apart along x, then a gap of 5 pc to one more. */
 const POINTS = [...Array.from({ length: 5 }, (_, i) => ({ id: 10 + i, x: i, y: 0, z: 0 })), { id: 99, x: 9, y: 0, z: 0 }];
@@ -25,6 +25,16 @@ describe('indexCatalogue', () => {
   });
 });
 
+/** The same index, counting the neighbour queries a search makes through it. */
+class CountingNeighbourhood extends StarNeighbourhood {
+  queries = 0;
+
+  override forEachWithin(id: number, radiusPc: number, visit: (neighbour: StarPoint, distancePc: number) => void): void {
+    this.queries++;
+    super.forEachWithin(id, radiusPc, visit);
+  }
+}
+
 describe('answerRouting', () => {
   const index = indexCatalogue(catalogue());
   const direct = new StarNeighbourhood(POINTS);
@@ -32,16 +42,43 @@ describe('answerRouting', () => {
   it('answers a route the range allows, with nothing to raise it to', () => {
     const answer = answerRouting(index, { kind: 'route', requestId: 7, fromId: 10, toId: 14, rangePc: 1.5, ceilingPc: 8 });
 
-    expect(answer).toEqual({ kind: 'route', requestId: 7, route: routeBetween(direct, 10, 14, 1.5), neededRangePc: null });
+    expect(answer).toEqual({ kind: 'route', requestId: 7, route: routeBetween(direct, 10, 14, 1.5).route, neededRangePc: null, gaveUp: false, least: true });
   });
 
   it('answers a route the range does not allow with the range that would', () => {
     const answer = answerRouting(index, { kind: 'route', requestId: 8, fromId: 10, toId: 99, rangePc: 1.5, ceilingPc: 8 });
 
-    expect(answer).toEqual({ kind: 'route', requestId: 8, route: null, neededRangePc: minimumRangeBetween(direct, 10, 99, 8) });
+    expect(answer).toEqual({ kind: 'route', requestId: 8, route: null, neededRangePc: minimumRangeBetween(direct, 10, 99, 8).rangePc, gaveUp: false, least: true });
     expect(answer.kind === 'route' && answer.neededRangePc).toBeCloseTo(5, 1);
   });
 
+  it('passes on that the search gave up, rather than reporting no route', () => {
+    // A crowd larger than a search's budget around the departure, and a destination nothing reaches:
+    // the answer is "it gave up", and the scene has to be able to tell that from "there is none".
+    let seed = 5;
+    const random = () => ((seed = (seed * 1103515245 + 12345) % 2147483648) / 2147483648) * 10 - 5;
+    const crowd: StarPoint[] = Array.from({ length: 45000 }, (_, i) => ({ id: 1000 + i, x: random(), y: random(), z: random() }));
+    const knot = new StarNeighbourhood([{ id: 0, x: 0, y: 0, z: 0 }, ...crowd, { id: 99, x: 500, y: 0, z: 0 }], 0.5);
+
+    const answer = answerRouting(knot, { kind: 'route', requestId: 12, fromId: 0, toId: 99, rangePc: 0.5, ceilingPc: 0.5 });
+
+    expect(answer).toMatchObject({ route: null, neededRangePc: null, gaveUp: true });
+  });
+
+  it('asks the ceiling its question once, rather than searching it again to answer it', () => {
+    // At the panel's widest range the refused route and the range search are the same question, run
+    // with the same arguments over the same index: the second pays the whole budget for the answer
+    // the first already gave.
+    const counting = new CountingNeighbourhood(POINTS);
+    const oneSearch = new CountingNeighbourhood(POINTS);
+    routeBetween(oneSearch, 10, 99, 3);
+
+    const answer = answerRouting(counting, { kind: 'route', requestId: 11, fromId: 10, toId: 99, rangePc: 3, ceilingPc: 3 });
+
+    expect(answer).toMatchObject({ route: null, neededRangePc: null });
+    expect(counting.queries).toBe(oneSearch.queries);
+  });
+
   it('offers nothing to raise to when even the ceiling does not reach', () => {
     const answer = answerRouting(index, { kind: 'route', requestId: 9, fromId: 10, toId: 99, rangePc: 1.5, ceilingPc: 3 });
 
diff --git a/src/app/shared/astro/routing.ts b/src/app/shared/astro/routing.ts
index f917d7c..521f89d 100644
--- a/src/app/shared/astro/routing.ts
+++ b/src/app/shared/astro/routing.ts
@@ -26,7 +26,21 @@ export type RoutingRequest =
   | { readonly kind: 'links'; readonly requestId: number; readonly rangePc: number; readonly drawn: Uint32Array; readonly budget?: LinkBudget };
 
 export type RoutingResponse =
-  | { readonly kind: 'route'; readonly requestId: number; readonly route: Route | null; readonly neededRangePc: number | null }
+  /**
+   * Two searches, and two things they can fail to prove, kept apart because they are printed as
+   * different sentences. `gaveUp` is about the range that was asked for: true when that search
+   * spent its budget rather than looking everywhere the range reaches. `least` is about the search
+   * for a range that would work: true when it looked everywhere up to the ceiling, so `null` there
+   * means no chain exists rather than none was found.
+   */
+  | {
+      readonly kind: 'route';
+      readonly requestId: number;
+      readonly route: Route | null;
+      readonly neededRangePc: number | null;
+      readonly gaveUp: boolean;
+      readonly least: boolean;
+    }
   | { readonly kind: 'links'; readonly requestId: number; readonly segments: Float32Array }
   /** The question threw in the worker. Sent back so the request settles instead of waiting for good. */
   | { readonly kind: 'failed'; readonly requestId: number; readonly message: string };
@@ -37,8 +51,9 @@ export function indexCatalogue({ ids, positions }: RoutingCatalogue): StarNeighb
 }
 
 /**
- * Answers one request. A route that cannot be made comes back with the range that would make
- * one, searched no wider than `ceilingPc`, so a refusal is always also an offer.
+ * Answers one request. A route that cannot be made comes back with the range that would make one,
+ * searched no wider than `ceilingPc`, so a refusal is usually also an offer — unless the searches
+ * gave up, which is reported rather than passed off as "there is no route".
  */
 export function answerRouting(index: StarNeighbourhood, request: RoutingRequest): RoutingResponse {
   if (request.kind === 'links') {
@@ -47,11 +62,13 @@ export function answerRouting(index: StarNeighbourhood, request: RoutingRequest)
     const drawn = new StarNeighbourhood(Array.from(request.drawn, (at) => index.pointAt(at)), request.rangePc);
     return { kind: 'links', requestId: request.requestId, segments: jumpLinkSegments(drawn, request.rangePc, request.budget) };
   }
-  const route = routeBetween(index, request.fromId, request.toId, request.rangePc);
-  return {
-    kind: 'route',
-    requestId: request.requestId,
-    route,
-    neededRangePc: route ? null : minimumRangeBetween(index, request.fromId, request.toId, request.ceilingPc)
-  };
+  const { route, gaveUp } = routeBetween(index, request.fromId, request.toId, request.rangePc);
+  // At the ceiling the question has just been asked: the range search would repeat it, identically
+  // and at the same cost, before bisecting below it.
+  if (route || request.rangePc >= request.ceilingPc) {
+    // Asked at the ceiling, the one search answers both questions.
+    return { kind: 'route', requestId: request.requestId, route, neededRangePc: null, gaveUp: !route && gaveUp, least: !gaveUp };
+  }
+  const needed = minimumRangeBetween(index, request.fromId, request.toId, request.ceilingPc);
+  return { kind: 'route', requestId: request.requestId, route: null, neededRangePc: needed.rangePc, gaveUp, least: needed.least };
 }
diff --git a/src/app/shared/format/scale-bar.spec.ts b/src/app/shared/format/scale-bar.spec.ts
index f673386..2913a6d 100644
--- a/src/app/shared/format/scale-bar.spec.ts
+++ b/src/app/shared/format/scale-bar.spec.ts
@@ -28,30 +28,45 @@ describe('distanceRings', () => {
   // The opening view sits about 307 pc from the Sun: the rings the map always had, with the
   // survey edge at the fifth, and on out past the camera for the stars now drawn beyond it.
   it('reaches past the camera from the opening view', () => {
-    expect(distanceRings(307, 5, 250)).toEqual([50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350]);
+    expect(distanceRings(0, 307, 5, 250)).toEqual([50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350]);
   });
 
   it('closes in with the camera', () => {
-    expect(distanceRings(20, 5, 250)).toEqual([2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20]);
-    expect(distanceRings(1, 5, 250)).toEqual([0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1]);
+    expect(distanceRings(0, 20, 5, 250)).toEqual([2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20]);
+    expect(distanceRings(0, 1, 5, 250)).toEqual([0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1]);
   });
 
   // Near Mirfak the camera is 155 pc out; rounding the step down to 20 pc must not leave the
   // rings stopping at 100.
   it('covers the whole distance whatever the rounding', () => {
-    expect(distanceRings(155, 5, 250)).toEqual([20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120, 140, 160]);
+    expect(distanceRings(0, 155, 5, 250)).toEqual([20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120, 140, 160]);
+  });
+
+  // A star 190 pc out seen from 20 pc away: the frame is a band about 19 pc either side of it and
+  // the Sun is nowhere in it. Sized to the 210 pc it reaches, the step would be 20 pc and the
+  // nearest rings — 180 and 200 — would both miss the frame.
+  it('spaces the rings for a frame that does not hold the Sun', () => {
+    const radii = distanceRings(171, 210, 5, 250);
+
+    expect(radii).toEqual([170, 175, 180, 185, 190, 195, 200, 205, 210]);
+    expect(radii.some((radius) => Math.abs(radius - 190) < 19)).toBe(true);
   });
 
   it('marks the callout among rings the step does not land on', () => {
-    expect(distanceRings(1000, 5, 250)).toEqual([200, 250, 400, 600, 800, 1000]);
+    expect(distanceRings(0, 1000, 5, 250)).toEqual([200, 250, 400, 600, 800, 1000]);
   });
 
-  it('leaves the callout out when it is past the last ring', () => {
-    expect(distanceRings(100, 5, 250)).toEqual([20, 40, 60, 80, 100]);
+  it('leaves the callout out when it is past the last ring, or behind the first', () => {
+    expect(distanceRings(0, 100, 5, 250)).toEqual([20, 40, 60, 80, 100]);
+    // Short of the survey edge by less than one step is not the rule — the last ring is: 245 pc
+    // overshoots to 260 and gets it, 235 pc stops at 240 and does not, on the same 20 pc step.
+    expect(distanceRings(0, 245, 5, 250)).toContain(250);
+    expect(distanceRings(0, 235, 5, 250)).not.toContain(250);
+    expect(distanceRings(400, 440, 5, 250)).toEqual([400, 405, 410, 415, 420, 425, 430, 435, 440]);
   });
 
   it('draws no rings for a camera with no distance', () => {
-    expect(distanceRings(0, 5, 250)).toEqual([]);
+    expect(distanceRings(0, 0, 5, 250)).toEqual([]);
   });
 });
 
diff --git a/src/app/shared/format/scale-bar.ts b/src/app/shared/format/scale-bar.ts
index 7eb8f88..96bb777 100644
--- a/src/app/shared/format/scale-bar.ts
+++ b/src/app/shared/format/scale-bar.ts
@@ -16,19 +16,33 @@ export function roundLengthAtMost(value: number): number | null {
 }
 
 /**
- * Rings at a round step of about `reach / count`, out to `reach` or just past it, plus `callout`
- * wherever it falls among them: the grid's own radii are round, and the one radius that means
- * something in its own right is marked whether the step lands on it or not. Rounding the step
- * down makes for `count` to `2.5 × count` rings, never fewer than it takes to cover `reach`.
+ * Rings across the span from `nearest` to `reach`, at a round step of about a `count`th of it,
+ * plus `callout` where it falls between the first ring and the last: the grid's own radii are
+ * round, and the one radius that means something in its own right is marked whether the step lands
+ * on it or not. A frame that stops short of it gets it only when the last ring — the first multiple
+ * of `step` at or past `reach` — is past it: reach 245 with a 20 pc step gets it, reach 235 does
+ * not, since its last ring is 240.
+ *
+ * Two numbers rather than one because these rings are centred on a fixed point — the Sun — and a
+ * frame need not be. Looking at something 200 pc out from 20 pc away, what is on screen is a band
+ * 200 pc wide at its narrowest and nowhere near the Sun; a step sized to the whole 220 puts every
+ * ring off the frame. The span is what the frame covers, so the step is what it can resolve.
+ *
+ * Rounding the step down, over a span that need not start at the Sun, makes for `count` to
+ * `ceil(2.5 × count) + 2` rings — `ceil(reach / step) - floor(nearest / step) + 1` — and the
+ * callout can add one: 5 to 16 for a count of 5.
  */
-export function distanceRings(reach: number, count: number, callout: number): number[] {
-  const step = roundLengthAtMost(reach / count);
+export function distanceRings(nearest: number, reach: number, count: number, callout: number): number[] {
+  const step = roundLengthAtMost((reach - nearest) / count);
   if (step === null) {
     return [];
   }
+  // The ring just inside the near edge of the span, so the band is crossed rather than started at.
+  const first = Math.max(1, Math.floor(nearest / step));
+  const last = Math.ceil(reach / step);
   // `toPrecision` clears the binary noise of stepping by a tenth: 0.1 × 3 is 0.30000000000000004.
-  const radii = Array.from({ length: Math.ceil(reach / step) }, (_, index) => Number((step * (index + 1)).toPrecision(12)));
-  if (callout > step && callout < radii[radii.length - 1] && !radii.includes(callout)) {
+  const radii = Array.from({ length: last - first + 1 }, (_, index) => Number((step * (first + index)).toPrecision(12)));
+  if (callout > radii[0] && callout < radii[radii.length - 1] && !radii.includes(callout)) {
     radii.push(callout);
     radii.sort((a, b) => a - b);
   }
diff --git a/tools/etl/build.ts b/tools/etl/build.ts
index b213455..5ca1709 100644
--- a/tools/etl/build.ts
+++ b/tools/etl/build.ts
@@ -66,8 +66,18 @@ function validateStars(stars: StarRecord[]): void {
  * The other failure leaves no close pair at all, because proper motion had already carried the
  * two entries tens of arcseconds apart — the 2026-08-24 refresh, where HYG sat at epoch 2000.0
  * and Gaia at J2016.0. What it does leave is HYG rows that found no counterpart: 36 056 of them
- * against the 10 876 Gaia genuinely lacks (bright stars it saturates on, red dwarfs past its
- * magnitude cut).
+ * against the 10 886 today, and no counterpart was possible for most of those. Two thirds of them,
+ * 6 835, are the stars Gaia measures but the main query never downloads, because Gaia's parallax
+ * puts them past `ETL_GAIA_DISTANCE_PC` while Hipparcos put them inside `ETL_STAR_DISTANCE_PC`;
+ * they are every star in the published catalogue beyond 250 pc. The rest are what Gaia genuinely
+ * lacks: bright stars it saturates on, red dwarfs past its magnitude cut. So the headroom left to
+ * the ceiling tracks the gap between those two cutoffs as much as Gaia's completeness.
+ *
+ * This bounds a merge that went wrong, and — loosely — a Gaia download that came back short: a
+ * truncated answer leaves the HYG rows whose counterpart it dropped without one, so survivors go
+ * *up*, not down. Measured against the published catalogue: 10 886 today, 11 004 at nine tenths of
+ * the rows, 12 711 at half, 16 258 at a third. So this ceiling only catches a truncation past about
+ * two thirds, and `fetchGaiaStars` catches the shallower ones with its own row floor.
  */
 const MAX_UNMERGED_TWINS = 100;
 const MAX_HYG_SURVIVORS = 15_000;
diff --git a/tools/etl/fetchStars.ts b/tools/etl/fetchStars.ts
index 1f2eb66..0225fba 100644
--- a/tools/etl/fetchStars.ts
+++ b/tools/etl/fetchStars.ts
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ import { writeFileSync } from 'node:fs';
 import { mergeStarCatalogues, placementDistancePc } from '../../src/app/shared/astro/star-merge';
 import { encodeStarCatalog } from '../../src/app/shared/models/star-catalog';
 import { StarRecord, SUN_STAR_ID } from '../../src/app/shared/models/star.model';
-import { fetchGaiaDistancesByHip } from './sources/gaia';
+import { fetchGaiaDistancesByHip, GaiaAnswerError } from './sources/gaia';
 import { positionalSources } from './sources/registry';
 import { PARALLAX_PRECISION_MAS } from './sources/star-sources';
 import { parseCsvObjects, parseOptionalNumber } from './lib/csv';
@@ -142,7 +142,9 @@ export async function fetchStars(): Promise<StarRecord[]> {
  *
  * A source that cannot be reached is reported and skipped here rather than thrown, so a run still
  * gets as far as validation and says what it has. Whether that may be published is decided
- * there: `validateMerge` in build.ts refuses a catalogue Gaia contributed nothing to.
+ * there: `validateMerge` in build.ts refuses a catalogue Gaia contributed nothing to. A source
+ * that answered with something unusable ({@link GaiaAnswerError}) is a different matter, and stops
+ * the run where it happened rather than being reported later as an outage.
  */
 async function mergeWithOtherSources(hygStars: StarRecord[]): Promise<StarRecord[]> {
   const others = positionalSources().filter((source) => source.id !== 'hyg');
@@ -160,6 +162,11 @@ async function mergeWithOtherSources(hygStars: StarRecord[]): Promise<StarRecord
         stars: await source.fetch!()
       });
     } catch (error) {
+      // An answer that cannot be worked with is not an outage: skipping it would write a
+      // half-catalogue over the published assets before the merge gate got to say so.
+      if (error instanceof GaiaAnswerError) {
+        throw error;
+      }
       console.log(`  skipping ${source.name}: ${error instanceof Error ? error.message : error}`);
     }
   }
diff --git a/tools/etl/lib/http.ts b/tools/etl/lib/http.ts
index 9410ec0..a214332 100644
--- a/tools/etl/lib/http.ts
+++ b/tools/etl/lib/http.ts
@@ -34,9 +34,15 @@ const RETRY_DELAYS_MS = [30_000, 120_000];
 
 async function fetchText(url: string): Promise<string> {
   for (let attempt = 0; ; attempt++) {
-    const response = await fetch(url).catch((error: unknown) => (error instanceof Error ? error : new Error(String(error))));
+    let response = await fetch(url).catch((error: unknown) => (error instanceof Error ? error : new Error(String(error))));
     if (!(response instanceof Error) && response.ok) {
-      return response.text();
+      // Read inside the loop, because the body is where these downloads fail: the Gaia CSV is
+      // 57 MB, and a connection reset part-way through rejects here, long after the 200.
+      const body = await response.text().catch((error: unknown) => (error instanceof Error ? error : new Error(String(error))));
+      if (typeof body === 'string') {
+        return body;
+      }
+      response = body;
     }
     const reason = response instanceof Error ? response.message : `${response.status} ${response.statusText}`;
     // A 4xx is the request's own fault, and waiting will not change the answer.
diff --git a/tools/etl/sources/gaia.ts b/tools/etl/sources/gaia.ts
index c70d6a6..bdd6626 100644
--- a/tools/etl/sources/gaia.ts
+++ b/tools/etl/sources/gaia.ts
@@ -38,9 +38,12 @@ const CATALOGUE_EPOCH = 2000.0;
  * past anything this map draws, so the limit here is a payload decision: the catalogue is baked
  * into a static asset that a browser downloads before the first frame.
  */
-const DISTANCE_CUTOFF_PC = Number(process.env['ETL_GAIA_DISTANCE_PC'] ?? 250);
-const MAGNITUDE_LIMIT = Number(process.env['ETL_GAIA_MAGNITUDE_LIMIT'] ?? 12);
-const ROW_LIMIT = Number(process.env['ETL_GAIA_ROW_LIMIT'] ?? 500000);
+const DEFAULT_DISTANCE_CUTOFF_PC = 250;
+const DEFAULT_MAGNITUDE_LIMIT = 12;
+const DEFAULT_ROW_LIMIT = 500_000;
+const DISTANCE_CUTOFF_PC = Number(process.env['ETL_GAIA_DISTANCE_PC'] ?? DEFAULT_DISTANCE_CUTOFF_PC);
+const MAGNITUDE_LIMIT = Number(process.env['ETL_GAIA_MAGNITUDE_LIMIT'] ?? DEFAULT_MAGNITUDE_LIMIT);
+const ROW_LIMIT = Number(process.env['ETL_GAIA_ROW_LIMIT'] ?? DEFAULT_ROW_LIMIT);
 
 /**
  * Relative parallax error above which a star is dropped: a parallax measured to worse than 20%
@@ -67,6 +70,35 @@ function buildQuery(): string {
   ].join(' ');
 }
 
+/**
+ * How many rows the query above holds when nothing is overridden: 412 765, and DR3 is a finished
+ * data release, so that number only moves when the query does. It lives here, under the query, so
+ * that an edit to any of its filters is made with the count it invalidates in view.
+ *
+ * Checked because a short answer looks exactly like a complete one. The TAP service truncates on
+ * its own timeout and still serves a well-formed CSV with a 200, and the rows are ordered by
+ * magnitude, so what comes back is the bright half — the half HYG overlaps. The merge gate in
+ * `build.ts` would then see Gaia stars present and a survivor count barely moved, and pass a
+ * catalogue missing two hundred thousand stars, which the weekly job would publish and the runner
+ * would cache for the weeks after it. Same failure, and same guard, as
+ * {@link MIN_USABLE_HIP_DISTANCES} below.
+ *
+ * Only checked when nothing is overridden: the environment overrides exist to fetch a smaller
+ * slice on purpose.
+ */
+const DEFAULT_QUERY_ROWS = 412_765;
+const MIN_ROW_SHARE = 0.95;
+
+/**
+ * An answer the archive gave that cannot be worked with, as against an archive that gave none.
+ *
+ * `fetchStars` skips a source it cannot reach and leaves the merge gate to judge the result. That
+ * is right for an outage and wrong for a truncated CSV, which would be skipped, cached, and land
+ * as "the archive was unreachable" long after the assets had been overwritten — so these throws
+ * are marked, and rethrown there.
+ */
+export class GaiaAnswerError extends Error {}
+
 /**
  * Gaia publishes no spectral classifications, but `bp_rp` is a colour index on the same footing
  * as HYG's `ci` — so the app's existing colour and spectral-class handling works unchanged, and
@@ -90,8 +122,22 @@ export async function fetchGaiaStars(): Promise<StarRecord[]> {
   // Keyed by the whole request, so a response cached for other columns, another order, or
   // another endpoint can never be mistaken for this one — the cache records only that some
   // response arrived, not what it answered.
-  const csv = await fetchTextCached(url, `gaia-dr3-${createHash('sha1').update(url).digest('hex').slice(0, 8)}.csv`);
+  const cacheKey = `gaia-dr3-${createHash('sha1').update(url).digest('hex').slice(0, 8)}.csv`;
+  const csv = await fetchTextCached(url, cacheKey);
   const rows = parseCsvObjects(csv);
+  const jobsQuery = DISTANCE_CUTOFF_PC === DEFAULT_DISTANCE_CUTOFF_PC && MAGNITUDE_LIMIT === DEFAULT_MAGNITUDE_LIMIT && ROW_LIMIT === DEFAULT_ROW_LIMIT;
+  if (jobsQuery && rows.length < DEFAULT_QUERY_ROWS * MIN_ROW_SHARE) {
+    throw new GaiaAnswerError(
+      `Gaia returned ${rows.length} rows, not the ~${DEFAULT_QUERY_ROWS} this query holds — the answer was cut short, it was an error page ` +
+        `served with a 200, or the query was edited without updating DEFAULT_QUERY_ROWS; delete tools/etl/.cache/${cacheKey} once the archive answers properly`
+    );
+  }
+  // Not gated on `jobsQuery` like the floor above it: the only ways to reach this cap are the
+  // overrides that *widen* the query, and they are exactly when it is worth saying. What it must
+  // not fire on is a deliberately smaller slice, where filling the limit is the whole point.
+  if (ROW_LIMIT >= DEFAULT_ROW_LIMIT && rows.length >= ROW_LIMIT) {
+    throw new GaiaAnswerError(`Gaia returned the query's own ${ROW_LIMIT}-row limit, so it is the limit deciding what the map holds; raise ETL_GAIA_ROW_LIMIT.`);
+  }
   const stars: StarRecord[] = [];
 
   rows.forEach((row, index) => {