A truck-sized NASA space telescope is about to crash to Earth
Almost 22 years after it was launched, NASA's Swift Observatory is now about to fall back to Earth on Wednesday after attempts to push it back into a higher orbit failed. NASA announced that the aging space telescope is anticipated to re-enter Earth's atmosphere at approximately 3:30AM ET (give or take 11 hours) and that it...
Key Takeaways
- Almost 22 years after it was launched, NASA's Swift Observatory is now about to fall back to Earth on Wednesday after attempts to push it back into a higher orbit failed.
- NASA announced that the aging space telescope is anticipated to re-enter Earth's atmosphere at approximately 3:30AM ET (give or take 11 hours) and that it expects most of the spacecraft to burn up, but some components will likely survive re-entry.
- The observatory weighs around 3,200 pounds and measures in at 5.6 meters (18.4 feet) high and 5.4 meters (17.7 feet) wide, though much of the latter includes the observatory's deployable solar arrays.
Almost 22 years after it was launched, NASA's Swift Observatory is now about to fall back to Earth on Wednesday after attempts to push it back into a higher orbit failed. NASA announced that the aging space telescope is anticipated to re-enter Earth's atmosphere at approximately 3:30AM ET (give or take 11 hours) and that it expects most of the spacecraft to burn up, but some components will likely survive re-entry. The observatory weighs around 3,200 pounds and measures in at 5.6 meters (18.4 feet) high and 5.4 meters (17.7 feet) wide, though much of the latter includes the observatory's deployable solar arrays. The risk of surviving compon … Read the full story at The Verge.
Original Publisher Attribution
This summary was curated from The Verge.