Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Image credit: NASA/GSFC

That botched re-boost/rescue of NASA’s Swift observatory now means an uncontrolled downing of the multi-wavelength scanning spacecraft that was fine-tuned to digging deep into gamma-ray burst science.

The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory was hurled into orbit back in November of 2004. Over the years, it carried out its duties of studying gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful explosions in the universe, and other cosmic objects and events.

But now the spacecraft is destined for a fiery fall from space.

“The most likely outcome is that any surviving debris will land in the sea, but there is a chance it could impact a built-up area and cause a casualty,” said one reentry expert.

For more details, go to my new Space.com story – “After failure of private rescue mission, NASA’s Swift space telescope will crash back to Earth. But when and where?” – at:

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/missions/after-failure-of-private-rescue-mission-nasas-swift-space-telescope-will-crash-back-to-earth-but-when-and-where