NASA's Swift telescope on the verge of plunging back to Earth

An aging NASA telescope is barely clinging to space after a failed rescue effort left it tottering lower and lower. The U.S. Space Force predicts the Swift Observatory will come crashing down on or around Friday. Most of the 1½-ton telescope is expected to burn up in the atmosphere. But a few 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. Its cosmic cremation has the Swift team mourning yet full of gratitude for the observations the telescope made during its 22 years in orbit. Swift blasted off on Nov.