SEOUL: A defunct Nasa telescope is expected to fall back to Earth on Wednesday (Nov 11) evening, but it is highly unlikely that the observatory will crash near the Korean Peninsula, Yonhap News Agency reported, citing South Korea's space agency.
The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, also known as the Swift telescope, is projected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere at around 8.46pm, the Korea AeroSpace Administration (Kasa) said, citing an analysis by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (Kasi). The margin of error is two hours, it added.
Launched in 2004, the 1.5-tonne telescope had been operating for the past 22 years on a mission to observe high-energy gamma-ray bursts.
The observatory, however, had been slowly falling out of orbit. In July, Nasa attempted to send a private satellite to boost the telescope's altitude, but the plan failed. Eventually, the telescope reached the point of no return and was shut down on Oct 20.
Kasa said it plans to continue monitoring the Swift telescope's movements in cooperation with Kasi, adding that most of the telescope's body is expected to burn up in the atmosphere, but some components are likely to fall into the ocean. - Bernama-Yonhap
