NASA's Swift space telescope falls to Earth after 22-year mission

NASA's Swift space telescope re-entered Earth's atmosphere on Wednesday, ending a 22-year scientific mission observing and studying some of the universe's most powerful explosions, according to the Associated Press (AP).

The US Space Force confirmed that the observatory re-entered the atmosphere near Indonesia after its orbit declined due to intense solar activity over recent years, less than three months after an attempt to rescue it and raise its orbit failed.

NASA had commissioned Katalyst Space to carry out the rescue mission using LINK, a robotic spacecraft equipped with three arms. However, the spacecraft encountered problems following its launch in July and ultimately re-entered Earth's atmosphere in September.

It was not immediately clear how much of the roughly 1.5-tonne observatory burned up during re-entry, while NASA expected some of its denser components to survive.

Swift was launched in 2004 on what was initially planned as a two-year mission to study gamma-ray bursts and exploding stars.

Instead, it remained operational for almost 22 years, observing thousands of cosmic events and playing a key role in locating explosions and allowing other observatories to study them in greater detail.