NASA’s Swift telescope faces reentry after Katalyst’s $30 million rescue fails

NASA’s Swift telescope is forecast to reenter Earth’s atmosphere on November 4. A $30 million rescue failed, just as NASA looks to commercial operators for Hubble’s future. A forecast, not yet a confirmed crash Swift’s return remains a prediction. NASA’s November 2 update put reentry around 3:30 a.m. EST on November 4, with an 11-hour margin of error. The Aerospace Corporation offered a tighter estimate: 5:19 a.m. EST, plus or minus two hours. Most of the 3,200-pound spacecraft should burn up. Any surviving debris would fall within 20.6 degrees north or south of the equator. NASA puts the chance of someone being injured at roughly 1 in 2,100. Solar activity dragged Swift down Swift was built for two years of gamma-ray-burst research when it launched on November 20, 2004.

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