Updated

NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, launched in 2004, is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere around 3:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday, November 4. Attempts to push the spacecraft into a higher orbit failed, and an earlier rescue effort also did not succeed. NASA expects most of the roughly 3,200-pound telescope to burn up during re-entry, but some components will likely survive. Smithsonian Magazine noted the observatory detected thousands of astrophysical phenomena and led to major discoveries over its two decades in orbit. The Verge reported that the spacecraft measures 5.6 meters long.