Swift's return is highly unlikely to pose a danger to people and property, but it will present a valuable opportunity that could help scientists mitigate future risks. The event will also mark the end of one of the most successful astronomy campaigns NASA has ever launched.
Illustrative image · Source: Gizmodo · Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KBRwyle) · Rights unverified · Reencoded as WebP with metadata removed. Display may be resized or cropped.
NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is expected to fall back to Earth this week after a rescue mission failed to save it. Most of the spacecraft should burn up in the atmosphere, but experts believe some internal components could survive reentry.
Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell told Gizmodo that survival of some parts would not be surprising. He noted that Swift is about a ton-and-a-half spacecraft and that satellites of that size often have some fraction, like 10 percent, survive reentry. McDowell said it would not be surprising if at least 100 kilograms, or about 220 pounds, or so survived reentry, especially given the dense telescope mirror equipment on astronomy satellites like Swift.
Swift spent nearly 22 years in orbit studying gamma-ray bursts. Launched in November 2004, the mission was only supposed to last two years. According to NASA, the telescope observed more than 2,000 gamma-ray bursts, 1,400 supernovae and other cosmic phenomena that led to about 7,000 published papers.
Swift has gradually lost altitude over the last two decades, and recent spikes in solar activity helped accelerate its orbital decay, according to the report. In September 2025, NASA tapped Katalyst Space Technologies of Flagstaff, Arizona, for a mission to boost Swift's orbit and extend its operational lifespan. That mission, called LINK, launched in July but was later derailed by attitude control issues. As of October 23, Swift's orbit had decayed to an altitude of less than 171 miles, or 275 kilometers, above Earth's surface, according to NASA. Based on the latest tracking data from the U.S. Space Force, McDowell said the satellite should reenter the atmosphere sometime between Tuesday and Wednesday this week.
Given the uncertainty of the timing and the unpredictability of an uncontrolled descent, forecasting Swift's reentry point and where any surviving pieces could land is extremely difficult. Swift's orbit extends about 20 degrees north and south of the equator, meaning debris could fall anywhere between those latitudes. McDowell said a lot of that latitude band is ocean, which is where surviving components are most likely to land, but there are land masses and densely populated communities within the reentry zone, including swaths of Africa, Australia, India, Southeast Asia, and Central and South America. The chances of a falling piece of Swift damaging infrastructure or injuring someone are extremely low. McDowell said that typically detailed calculations come out to a one in 10,000 chance that someone will get hurt, but that since Sputnik there have been about 10,000 reentries, so one of these days our luck is going to run out.
Original publication:
Snap has reached a settlement in a lawsuit by two teenagers who accused it of designing its platform to be addictive and contributing to their depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. The trial was set to be Snap's first in a broader wave of litigation over social media's impact on young users.
Control of Great Britain's 39m smart meters has moved to a non-profit startup, ending Smart DCC's 13-year licence under Capita after years of spiralling costs and delays, as the network transfers to a wholly owned subsidiary of the Smart Energy Code Company.
The Prospect union has reached an agreement with Google to begin organising among about 7,000 workers across its UK operations, following new UK rights for unions to access workplaces.