The American SWIFT space telescope has left orbit and burned up in the Earth's atmosphere over Indonesia. For 22 years, the observatory, weighing about 1.5 tonnes, studied gamma-ray bursts, among the most powerful energy phenomena in the Universe. This was reported by NASA.
According to the US Space Force, the spacecraft entered the atmosphere on 4 November at 07:39 US Eastern Time (16:39 Ashgabat time). This happened over the province of North Sumatra, approximately 322 kilometres north of the equator. The telescope was travelling at more than 22 times the speed of sound.
Most of the structure burned up in the upper layers of the atmosphere. Some of the most durable fragments may have reached the Earth's surface, but according to NASA, they caused no damage.
SWIFT ended its operation three months after an unsuccessful attempt to extend its mission. In July, NASA launched the Link tug satellite, which was supposed to approach the observatory, capture it with its manipulators and raise its orbit. However, shortly after launch, a fault occurred in the tug's attitude control system: the spacecraft began to spin and contact with it was lost. It proved impossible to restore its operation and carry out the rescue operation, which cost 30 million dollars.
The telescope was launched in 2004. Over the course of its mission, it detected more than two thousand gamma-ray bursts and about 1.4 thousand supernova explosions. In 2025, due to increased solar activity, the observatory's orbit began to decline rapidly: its altitude fell from 585 to 360 kilometres.
