NASA’s Swift Observatory is expected to fall back to Earth within days after a failed rescue mission left the ageing space telescope in a rapidly declining orbit. Most of the spacecraft is expected to burn up in the atmosphere, although some debris could survive reentry.

Axar.az reports, citing the Associated Press, that the US Space Force expects the 1.5-tonne observatory to reenter the atmosphere on or around Friday.

NASA scientist Brad Cenko said most of the spacecraft would burn up during reentry, but some denser components, including tungsten parts and sections of its mirrors, could survive. Any debris reaching the ground is most likely to fall into the ocean, although parts of Africa, Australia, India, Southeast Asia, and Central and South America are within the potential reentry zone.

Swift was launched on November 20, 2004, to study some of the universe's most powerful explosions, including gamma-ray bursts and supernovas. Over 22 years in orbit, it detected more than 2,000 gamma-ray bursts and 1,400 exploding stars, as well as comets, asteroids, and black holes.

Its orbit deteriorated faster than expected because of intense solar activity in recent years. NASA hired Katalyst Space to attempt an emergency rescue, but the company's three-armed robotic spacecraft, Link, failed to reach Swift after launching in July. It came no closer than 12–15 kilometres to the telescope before falling back to Earth in September.

Swift resumed observations after the rescue attempt was abandoned, but by late October it had descended too low to maintain the stability required for scientific work. Its systems were subsequently shut down.