A NASA space telescope plunged back to Earth after a mission that lasted 11 times longer than planned

NASA’s Swift space telescope re-entered Earth’s atmosphere near Indonesia, ending a 22-year mission studying the universe’s most powerful explosions. Its loss matters because Swift also acted as an early alert for other telescopes, helping them investigate gamma-ray bursts and exploding stars in greater depth.

Launched in 2004 for a planned two-year study, Swift operated 11 times longer than expected and observed thousands of cosmic explosions. Solar activity gradually lowered its orbit, while a private company’s attempted rescue failed after its robotic craft encountered trouble following a July launch and crashed in September. NASA expects some dense pieces of the 1.5-ton observatory may have survived re-entry; the agency is also considering ways to extend Hubble’s life before its expected return to Earth by the mid-2030s.