An update to my post on NASA ending Swift’s mission. Space.com says the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory should reenter in the next few days.
Where it stands
- Swift launched in November 2004 and spent two decades studying gamma-ray bursts with three telescopes
- By Oct. 20 its orbit had decayed to about 171 miles (275 km), and the roughly 3,300-pound observatory couldn’t keep up with the drag. The team at Penn State shut it down
- The reentry is uncontrolled, and exactly when and where isn’t known yet
Should you worry?
No. NASA says harm to anyone on the ground is unlikely. LeoLabs’ Darren McKnight says it’ll mostly burn up, though some internal parts of the X-ray and optical telescopes might survive, and any pieces will most likely land in the ocean. His bigger worry: 10 times more objects are reentering per year than five years ago, and massive objects keep getting abandoned above 400 miles.
My take
Twenty years of gamma-ray bursts from a two-year mission. That’s a good run.
God Bless, and Use the Source!
