Air Billions of Times Thinner Than Ours Just Ended a NASA Telescope's Mission

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Издатель Oct 27, 2026

NASA's Swift telescope launched in 2004 to about 600 kilometers up. The air there is billions of times thinner than at the ground, but Swift still hit some of it on every lap. Each hit took a little energy, so its orbit slowly shrank. How much air is up there depends on the Sun. When the Sun is at its most active, it heats the upper air and the air puffs up. Atmosphere models show the air at 400 kilometers was more than eight times denser at the 2024 peak than in 2019.

Swift took 21 years to sink to 400 kilometers. Then it fell another 125 kilometers in under nine months, because the lower it sank, the thicker the air got. NASA signed a 30 million dollar deal with Katalyst Space Technologies to boost Swift with a robot, but the robot could not control which way it pointed, and in August the boost was called off. Swift made its last observation on October 20, 2026, and NASA expects it to fall back into the atmosphere within weeks. It was built to last two years and worked for almost 22.

Sources:
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/swift/nasas-swift-mission-ends/
https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/swift/2026/02/11/nasas-swift-mission-transitions-ops-to-prep-for-orbit-boost/
https://spaceflightnow.com/2026/05/08/rescue-mission-for-nasas-500-million-space-telescope-passes-key-testing-milestone/
https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/no-go-for-katalysts-reboost-of-nasas-swift-observatory/
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-awards-company-to-attempt-swift-spacecraft-orbit-boost/
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-updates-next-steps-for-commercial-swift-boost-mission/
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/nasa-successfully-launches-rescue-mission-to-save-swift-space-telescope-from-burning-up-in-earths-atmosphere
https://www.katalystspace.com/mission/link
https://www.spaceweather.gov/impacts/satellite-drag
https://services.swpc.noaa.gov/json/solar-cycle/observed-solar-cycle-indices.json
https://celestrak.org/NORAD/elements/gp.php?CATNR=28485
https://swxtrec.github.io/pymsis/

Every picture in this video is drawn in code, and there is no footage. The air density lines come from the NRLMSIS 2.1 atmosphere model run with the real monthly solar record; the eight times figure is the model's average around Swift's orbit at 400 kilometers, checked against the older NRLMSISE-00 model. Swift's heights are the ones NASA and Spaceflight Now reported, and its speed and current height come from public CelesTrak orbit data. Earth's curve is to scale; the spacecraft are enlarged so you can see them.

Orbital Pulse · Insights Beyond Earth