NASA’s Swift Observatory is expected to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere on Wednesday, nearly 22 years after its launch. The agency estimates the re-entry will happen at about 3:30 a.m. ET, with a possible variation of 11 hours. Most of the spacecraft is expected to burn up, although some components may survive.
Swift weighs about 3,200 pounds and measures 5.6 meters (18.4 feet) tall and 5.4 meters (17.7 feet) wide, including its deployable solar arrays. NASA says any surviving fragments are expected to fall within a band between 20.6 degrees south and 20.6 degrees north latitude. The agency estimates the chance of harm to anyone on Earth at approximately 1 in 2,100 and says it will continue to monitor the re-entry with the US Space Force.
NASA abandoned an effort to raise Swift into a higher orbit earlier this year after the Link spacecraft involved in the rescue experienced attitude-control problems. Swift had outlasted its original two-year primary mission, which focused on studying the origins of gamma-ray bursts. It later operated as a general-purpose, multi-wavelength observatory before solar storms pushed it into a lower orbit.
Sources: The Verge.