The Swift Observatory ended its 22-year mission tracking gamma ray bursts and exploding stars when it fell back to Earth on Wednesday. NASA contracted Katalyst Space to boost the spacecraft's orbit earlier this year, but the rescue vehicle suffered issues and crashed in September. Although some denser fragments were expected to survive the fall, the mission far exceeded its original two-year lifespan. The agency is now actively seeking commercial plans to raise Hubble's orbit or perform a controlled reentry by 2032.
Key points
Intense solar activity continues to degrade satellite orbits, presenting operational risk…: Intense solar activity continues to degrade satellite orbits, presenting operational risks to aging space observatories.
Swift concluded a historic 22-year mission that detected thousands of cosmic explosions a…: Swift concluded a historic 22-year mission that detected thousands of cosmic explosions and alerted global observatories.
NASA is reviewing commercial proposals to boost the Hubble Space Telescope's orbit or con…: NASA is reviewing commercial proposals to boost the Hubble Space Telescope's orbit or conduct a controlled reentry by 2032.
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Cape Canaveral, Fla.: One of NASA's premier space telescopes plunged to Earth on Wednesday, ending its 22-year investigation of the universe's biggest explosions.
The Swift Observatory's demise came less than three months after a long-shot rescue mission failed.
The U.S. Space Force confirmed Swift's reentry near Indonesia after tracking its sinking orbit, the result of intense solar activity the past few years.
NASA hired a private company to whip together an orbit-boosting effort, but Katalyst Space's three-armed robotic craft ran into trouble following its July launch and came crashing down in September.
It was not immediately known how much of the 1 ½-ton spacecraft burned up in the atmosphere. NASA anticipated some of the denser pieces surviving.
Swift rocketed into orbit in 2004 on what was expected to be a two-year study of gamma ray bursts and exploding stars. It observed thousands of them over a mission that lasted 11 times longer than planned, serving as a first responder for other telescopes that could probe deeper.
NASA is gauging industry's interest in mounting a rescue mission for another observatory whose…
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Decades of intense solar activity degraded the orbit of the 1 ½-ton Swift Observatory, culminating in its atmospheric reentry near Indonesia on Wednesday. The spacecraft had spent 22 years operating as a vital cosmic first responder by flagging exploding stars and gamma-ray bursts for other observatories. Its loss accelerates NASA's urgency to protect the aging Hubble Space Telescope from a similar fate caused by persistent solar storms.
The space agency has confirmed the conclusion of a multi-decade orbital mission dedicated to astronomical observation. Operating well beyond its original design life, the instrument spent over two decades gathering scientific data from low Earth orbit. Its controlled or unguided descent marks the definitive end of its long-running deep space monitoring capabilities.