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Doomed 3,200lb Nasa telescope is set to crash to Earth today after a failed rescue, with some fragments expected to survive

Doomed 3,200lb Nasa telescope is set to crash to Earth today after a failed rescue, with some fragments expected to survive

NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, a 3,200lb spacecraft launched to hunt the universe's most powerful explosions, is expected to plunge uncontrolled into Earth's atmosphere at around 3.30am ET on Wednesday after a first-of-its-kind commercial rescue mission failed three months ago. The US Space Force has tracked its orbital decay, driven by increased solar activity, with an uncertainty window of 11 hours either side of the predicted re-entry time.

Swift detected more than 2,000 gamma-ray bursts over 22 years — far outlasting its designed two-year lifespan.

Surviving debris could fall across a belt spanning Latin America, Africa, southern Asia and northern Australia — the US and Europe are outside the impact zone.

Astronomer John Nousek, who worked on the mission, said bluntly: 'What goes up must come down. And that end is catastrophic.'

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