3,200-pound space telescope plunges back to Earth after 22 years in orbit

The Swift Observatory, a 1.5-ton NASA telescope that was launched more than two decades ago, has crashed back to Earth after an effort to rescue the wayward instrument failed earlier this year. 

The roughly 3,200-pound observatory reentered Earth’s atmosphere at 7:39 a.m. ET over the North Sumatra region of Indonesia, NASA said. Much of it burned up upon reentry. Some components are expected to survive reentry and may be found sprawled across hemispheres, NASA said. 

The observatory’s reentry path was tracked by NASA and the U.S. Space Force. NASA predicted its reentry time at around 3:30 a.m. ET on Nov. 4, with an 11-hour window of uncertainty on either side. NASA had previously said the “risk of harm coming to anyone on Earth is unlikely,” placing the odds at about 1 in 2,100. 

The Swift Observatory was sent into low-Earth orbit on Nov. 20, 2004 — almost exactly 22 years ago. The telescope’s mission was to search for massive galactic explosions, including gamma-ray bursts and supernovas. The telescope was named for its ability to swerve rapidly toward such events. 

The telescope was initially designed to run a two-year mission, but continued its operations until last month. Solar activity eventually dragged the telescope back down to Earth. Katalyst Space was contracted by NASA to mount a rescue of the telescope in July. The company dispatched a three-armed robot named Link to push the telescope back into place, but the robot ran into trouble shortly after launching. It was not able to get within seven miles of the telescope. The robot fell back to Earth in September. In August, it was decided that the Swift Observatory would be allowed to plunge back to Earth. 

The telescope continued to return observations until late October, when NASA determined it was too low to remain steady. Its systems were shut down at that time. 

In addition to observing more than 2,000 gamma-ray bursts and 1,400 exploding stars, the Swift telescope was a “first responder” for the Hubble and Webb space telescopes, NASA said. Swift would issue alerts to those and other facilities, which would then more deeply investigate those observations. 

“Swift has broadened our understanding of a wide variety of cosmic objects and events, from active galaxies powered by supermassive black holes and stars undergoing X-ray flares, to supernova explosions and comets and asteroids in our own solar system,” NASA said in a blog post. 

Scientists are still trying to figure out how to replace the work done by the Swift Observatory. 

“We’ve known this day would come since before Swift was launched. At least in low-Earth orbit, what goes up must come down. And that end is catastrophic,” Pennsylvania State University’s John Nousek, an astronomer who led the control team, said on Monday. 

“Our fervent hope is that the lessons learned by the successes of Swift can be applied to new generations of space missions to accelerate our discoveries about the universe,” Nousek added.