NASA's decades-old Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is rapidly falling out of orbit and could tumble back to Earth as early as tonight (Nov. 3), the space agency says.
According to NASA's latest estimates, shared yesterday (Nov. 2), the roughly 3,200-pound (1,450 kilograms) spacecraft will likely reenter Earth's atmosphere around 3:30 a.m. EST Wednesday (Nov. 4), with an uncertainty of plus or minus 11 hours — meaning the defunct observatory could plunge down as early as this evening.
An independent analysis from the private nonprofit Aerospace Corporation, which tracks thousands of objects in orbit, similarly estimates that the telescope will reenter the atmosphere at 5:12 a.m. EST Wednesday, give or take eight hours. Both estimates suggest the Swift spacecraft may be no more by Wednesday morning.
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