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NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere around 3:30AM Eastern on November 4, with an 11-hour uncertainty window, according to US Armed Forces predictions. The 3,200-pound spacecraft's demise follows a failed rescue attempt in July using Katalyst Space's LINK robotic craft, which suffered attitude control problems before NASA ended the mission and placed Swift into safe mode in late October.
NASA says the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, launched in 2004 to study gamma-ray bursts, is expected to fall to Earth next week after 22 years in orbit. A $30 million rescue attempt in July 2026 using a robotic craft called LINK to boost Swift's orbit failed due to control-system problems, and increased solar activity since 2024 had already accelerated the satellite's descent by thickening the upper atmosphere. As of October 26, NASA reported Swift was orbiting less than 170 miles above Earth's surface.
NASA says its 3,200-pound Swift Observatory, launched nearly 22 years ago, is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere around 3:30AM ET Wednesday, with an 11-hour margin of error. Most of the spacecraft should burn up, though some components may survive and land somewhere between 20.6 degrees north and south latitude. NASA puts the odds of anyone being harmed at roughly 1 in 2,100.
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 Swift Gamma-Ray Burst telescope, launched in 2004, is reentering Earth's atmosphere within days after a July mission using a Katalyst Space Technologies spacecraft to boost it into a higher orbit failed when that spacecraft tumbled out of control. NASA says Swift's orbit dropped to about 171 miles by mid-October and is now sinking rapidly due to atmospheric drag, with reentry location still unknown.
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.
ElementaryUI, an open-source project for writing Swift code that runs in the browser, has published a message thanking current financial supporters and inviting new sponsors. The post includes minimal project details, focusing mainly on acknowledging backers and soliciting further funding.
A developer published 'dontallow', a small Swift utility that automatically clicks 'Don't Allow' on macOS's recurring 'find devices on local networks' prompt. The tool runs with no CPU usage while idle and persists across reboots, requiring a single Swift file and no external dependencies. According to the creator, the prompt resurfaces repeatedly because Chromium-based browsers like Chrome, Brave, Edge and Arc relaunch from randomized temp paths each time, causing macOS to treat them as new apps needing a fresh permission decision.
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.
According to the Financial Times, artists including Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Charli XCX, Summer Walker and Doja Cat have been using the long-dormant iTunes Store to release exclusive songs and albums. Grande's surprise iTunes-only live version of Petal reportedly pushed the album from number 15 to number 6 on the charts, while Swift's Life of a Showgirl sold better through physical and digital purchases than streaming in its first US week.
A new open-source macOS command-line utility called bigarrow lets AI agents overlay a big, click-through arrow, box or text label on screen to point at specific UI elements. Released under the MIT license as a Swift binary with an accompanying 'agent skill', it requires no special permissions, runs with no background daemon, and disappears automatically after use.
Michael Smith, 54, was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to running a seven-year scheme that used AI-generated songs and bot accounts to defraud streaming platforms. The Justice Department said Smith created thousands of fake accounts on services like Spotify and Apple Music using stolen identities and fraudulent debit cards, then used automation to stream hundreds of thousands of AI-generated tracks billions of times. In one month alone, April 2023, his fake songs reportedly generated 80.9 million streams, more than Taylor Swift's entire catalog during the same period.