Swift Falls to Earth as NASA Asks Industry to Save Hubble

Less than two weeks after NASA ended its mission, the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory came home. It re-entered the atmosphere over northern Sumatra at 7:39 a.m. EST on Wednesday, 4 November, Space.com reported, citing satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell and US Space Force data. Spaceflight Now placed the fall over western Indonesia. The timing is pointed: days earlier, NASA had asked companies how to keep Hubble from suffering the same fate.

A minibus-sized ending

Swift weighed about 1,450 kg. NASA expected most of it to burn up and put the odds of surviving debris harming anyone at 1 in 2,100. Swift had no thrusters, so drag slowly pulled it down. A $30 million rescue by Katalyst Space failed when its LINK spacecraft, launched on 3 July, suffered propulsion and reaction-wheel problems; LINK itself fell on 25 September. "From the beginning, this was a high-risk, high-reward mission," said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, director of NASA's Astrophysics Division, quoted by Space.com.

• Launched in November 2004 for a two-year mission; it worked for almost 22 years.
• More than 2,000 gamma-ray bursts and 1,400 supernovae observed.
• Last science observation: 20 October 2026.

Hubble asks for a tow

On 29 October NASA issued a request for information asking industry to boost, service or safely dispose of Hubble, The Next Web and Gizmodo report. A boost must reach at least 600 km without harming the telescope, and responses are due 30 November. Companies would supply the rocket, the servicing spacecraft, operations and, if needed, a crew. Hubble flies at about 470 km; Space Shuttle Columbia last raised it, to 583 km, in 2002. Any mission would have to fly by 2032, since NASA sees a 10 percent chance of re-entry by September 2032 and 50 percent by December 2033.

It is NASA's second try. A 2022 call drew eight responses, and Jared Isaacman, then a private astronaut, offered to pay for most of a crewed Dragon mission; in 2024 NASA chose not to proceed. Isaacman now runs NASA. "Hubble still has important science ahead of it," he said, per Gizmodo. NASA has set no money aside and has not committed to buying a mission.

Swift showed what happens when no one comes. Hubble's question is whether anyone will.

The week ahead

• Thursday, 5 November: astronauts Anil Menon and Joshua Kutryk spacewalk to install the eighth and final new solar array on the ISS, NASA says.
• 7 November, 00:46 UTC (evening of 6 November in California): Falcon 9 launches the classified USSF-432 mission from Vandenberg after four date changes, per Space Launch Schedule.
• 13 November: ULA's Vulcan returns to flight with Amazon Leo satellites.
• 23 November, at the earliest: Ariane 64 carries 36 Amazon Leo satellites, Arianespace announced.

For stargazers, the takeaway is simple: Hubble keeps observing for now, and the decision on its future starts with what lands on NASA's desk by 30 November.