NASA's Swift space telescope set for fiery return to Earth

Cape Canaveral An aging NASA telescope is barely clinging to space after a failed rescue effort left it tottering lower and lower. The US Space Force predicts the Swift Observatory will come crashing down on or around Friday. Most of the 1 ½-ton telescope is expected to burn up in the atmosphere. But a handful of pieces made of denser-than-lead tungsten and some mirror parts could survive reentry, according to NASA’s Brad Cenko, the mission’s chief scientist. Any surviving wreckage will most likely plunge into the ocean. But swaths of Africa, Australia, India, Southeast Asia, and Central and South America are within the reentry zone. The Space Force is tracking the telescope’s dwindling path. Failed rescue attempt leaves telescope’s future sealed Its cosmic cremation has the Swift team mourning yet full of gratitude for the observations the telescope made during its 22 years in orbit.