GoKawiil
Tech News
NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, launched in November 2004 to study gamma-ray bursts, is expected to fall back to Earth around 3:30 a.m. ET on Nov. 4, with an 11-hour reentry window. Most of the spacecraft will burn up, and any surviving debris is expected to land within a band roughly 20.6 degrees north or south of the equator.
NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, after more than 20 years studying gamma-ray bursts, is predicted to make an uncontrolled reentry as early as Friday following a failed attempt by NASA and Katalyst Space Technologies to adjust its orbit in September. US Space Force tracking suggests most of the spacecraft will burn up, though some tungsten components and mirrors could survive and reach the ground, most likely in the ocean but potentially over parts of Africa, Australia, India, Southeast Asia, or the Americas.
NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, in orbit for nearly 22 years, is set to re-enter Earth's atmosphere around November 2 after a July mission to raise its altitude spun out of control before reaching the spacecraft. NASA has already shut down Swift's science operations because it drifted too low to lock onto astronomical targets, and most of the craft is expected to burn up, with any surviving debris likely landing in the ocean.
NASA and Katalyst Space attempted to use a robotic probe called LINK to grab the aging Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and push it back into a stable orbit, but the probe suffered altitude-control failures shortly after its July launch, forcing cancellation of the mission. Swift, launched in 2004, is now expected to reenter Earth's atmosphere and burn up as soon as later this year, sooner than the 2030 estimate scientists once projected.