NASA space telescope plunges to Earth after two decades studying cosmic explosions

One of NASA’s premier space telescopes plunged to Earth on Wednesday, ending its 22-year investigation of the universe’s biggest explosions.

\n\n

The Swift Observatory’s demise came less than three months after a long-shot rescue mission failed.

\n\n

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.

\n\n

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.

\n\n

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.

\n\n

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.

\n\n

NASA is gauging industry’s interest in mounting a rescue mission for another observatory whose orbit is being chipped away by solar storms: the Hubble Space Telescope. Launched in 1990, Hubble is expected to come crashing down by…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/

Related reading

• NASA readies to launch its next-generation space telescope
• Rescue mission is called off for NASA’s aging Swift space telescope