S. Korea will not be affected by NASA's Swift telescope crashing back to earth: KASA

Yonhap News Agency · Kang Jae-eun · 2026-11-04 07:34 UTC

SEOUL, Nov. 4 (Yonhap) -- A defunct NASA telescope is expected to fall back to E...

SEOUL, Nov. 4 (Yonhap) -- A defunct NASA telescope is expected to fall back to Earth on Wednesday evening, but it is highly unlikely the observatory will crash near the Korean Peninsula, South Korea's space agency said.

The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, also known as the Swift telescope, is projected to reenter the Earth's atmosphere at around 8:46 p.m., the Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) said, citing an analysis from the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI). The margin of error is two hours, it added.

Launched in 2004, the 1.5-ton telescope had been operating for the past 22 years on its mission to observe high-energy gamma-ray bursts.

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