NASA's 22 yr old swift space telescope makes fiery return to earth

NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, a satellite telescope that spent more than two decades studying powerful cosmic explosions, re-entered Earth’s atmosphere and burned up over Indonesia on Wednesday, bringing its 22-year mission to an end, according to agency reports.
The fiery descent of the 3,200-pound (1,452-kg) observatory came less than three months after a rescue mission failed to boost it into a higher orbit and extend its operational life.The US Space Force confirmed that Swift re-entered the atmosphere at 7:39 a.m. EST (1239 GMT), travelling at around 22 times the speed of sound over Indonesia’s North Sumatra province, approximately 322 km north of the equator, according to NASA.
NASA had expected most of the satellite to disintegrate due to intense frictional heat during re-entry, although some debris could survive the descent. The agency reported no damage or injuries on the ground from the falling debris.The Space Force had earlier assessed the risk to populated areas as very low, estimating the probability of harm to anyone on Earth at one in 2,100.
Swift’s re-entry marked the end of a mission that began in 2004 with the primary objective of studying gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful known explosions in the universe. Equipped with three telescopes capable of observing the cosmos across multiple wavelengths, the $500 million observatory also studied hundreds of supernova explosions, black holes tearing apart stars, stellar X-ray flares, asteroids and comets.During its operational lifetime, Swift contributed to nearly 7,000 published scientific papers, making it one of NASA’s significant astronomical research missions.
The observatory had far exceeded its original two-year design life but gradually drifted towards orbital instability. It ceased scientific operations on October 20.In July, NASA partnered with Arizona-based startup Katalyst to launch a specially designed rescue spacecraft, LINK, to reach Swift, attach itself to the observatory and move it into a higher, more sustainable orbit.However, the rescue spacecraft began spinning uncontrollably shortly after reaching space. Mission managers abandoned the operation by mid-August, leaving Swift to continue its descent towards Earth.