A truck-sized NASA space telescope is about to crash to Earth

The NASA Swift Observatory, a 22-year-old space telescope, is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere on Wednesday at approximately 3:30AM ET, after attempts to push it back into a higher orbit failed. The spacecraft weighs around 3,200 pounds and measures 5.6 meters high and 5.4 meters wide, with deployable solar arrays. While most of the spacecraft is expected to burn up, some components may survive re-entry, with a low risk of harm to people on Earth, estimated at approximately 1 in 2,100. NASA and the Space Force will continue to monitor the re-entry and update predictions. The risk of harm is limited to locations between 20.6 degrees south latitude and 20.6 degrees north latitude. The Swift Observatory far outlived its original two-year prime mission, serving as a general-purpose multi-wavelength observatory until solar storms pushed it into a lower orbit. The Link spacecraft that was attempting to rescue the Swift Observatory experienced technical issues with attitude control, leading NASA to give up on trying to save it earlier this year.