A truck-sized NASA space telescope is about to crash to Earth
NASA's Swift Observatory is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere after 22 years of service. While most of the telescope will burn up, NASA notes that the risk of harm to people on the ground is extremely low.
Why it matters
The event marks the end of a significant scientific mission and highlights the ongoing challenge of space debris management.
Almost 22 years after it was launched, NASA’s Swift Observatory is now about to fall back to Earth on Wednesday after attempts to push it back into a higher orbit failed. NASA announced that the aging space telescope is anticipated to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere at approximately 3:30AM ET (give or take 11 hours), and that it expects most of the spacecraft to burn up, but some components will likely survive re-entry.
The observatory weighs around 3,200 pounds and measures in at 5.6 meters (18.4 feet) high and 5.4 meters (17.7 feet) wide, though much of the latter includes its deployable solar arrays. The risk of surviving components causing any harm is low, according to NASA:
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