WORLDTECHNASA's Swift telescope falls to Earth uncontrolled after failed rescue lift
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File:NASA Science Calendar 2021.pdf / NASA This image was created with Adobe InDesign . / https://eospso.nasa.gov/https%3A/eospso.gsfc.nasa.gov/publications/2021-nasa-science-calendar ( direct link ) / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain / https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NASA_Science_Calendar_2021.pdfSource pageNASA's Swift space telescope has come back down to Earth, closing a mission that was planned to run two years and instead lasted 22. According to Interesting Engineering, the 3,200-pound observatory went down without any control over its path.
Uncontrolled descent on Nov. 4
Swift entered the atmosphere on Nov. 4 with no steering, according to Space Force data that timed the event at 7:39 a.m. The spacecraft weighs 3,200 pounds, or 1,450 kilograms.
The observatory is about the size of a minibus. NASA had forecast that most of it would burn up on the way down.
Rescue lift never happened
The reentry followed a rescue plan that was meant to carry out a private spacecraft's lift three months earlier, raising the telescope into a higher orbit where its life could have been prolonged. That lift did not take place, and the telescope fell without guidance.
Risk to people on the ground
NASA put the odds of surviving pieces injuring anyone on Earth at 1 in 2,100. Videos on social media appear to show the fiery descent, but they have not been independently verified.
Open questions
- Did any surviving debris reach the ground, and if so, where?
- Why did the planned rescue fail to raise the observatory?