CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — One of NASA’s premier space telescopes plunged to Earth on Wednesday, ending its 22-year investigation of the universe’s biggest explosions.
The Swift Observatory’s demise came less than three months after a long-shot rescue mission failed.
The U.S. Space Force confirmed Swift’s reentry near Indonesia after tracking its sinking orbit, the result of intense solar activity the past few years.
NASA hired a private company to whip together an orbit-boosting effort, but Katalyst Space's three-armed robotic craft ran into trouble following its July launch and came crashing down in September.
It was not immediately known how much of the 1 ½-ton spacecraft burned up in the atmosphere. NASA anticipated some of the denser pieces surviving.
Swift rocketed into orbit in 2004 on what was expected to be a two-year study of gamma ray bursts and exploding stars. It observed thousands of them over a mission that lasted 11 times longer than planned, serving as a first responder for other telescopes that could probe deeper.
NASA is gauging industry’s interest in mounting a rescue mission for another observatory whose orbit is being chipped away by solar storms: the Hubble Space Telescope. Launched in 1990, Hubble is expected to come crashing down by the mid-2030s, according to recent analyses.
The space agency is looking for input from private companies on whether and how they might boost Hubble’s orbit, upgrade its systems or guide it to a controlled reentry — or all three. Any such mission would need to happen by 2032.
Unlike the rush job with Swift, the space agency has more time to explore options for saving Hubble, said Nicky Fox, NASA’s science mission chief.
“Hubble still has important science ahead of it,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a statement, “and we should be looking at every reasonable opportunity to keep it delivering for as long as possible.”
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This photo provided by NASA shows an overhead crane raising the Swift spacecraft, wrapped in a protective cover, to vertical before being placed on a work standInside at Hangar AE at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, in Florida on Sept. 9, 2002. (NASA via AP)
IRVING, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 4, 2026--
Fluor Corporation (NYSE: FLR) announced today that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Inelectra, a Venezuela-based engineering, procurement and construction management company, to support existing and future clients across Venezuela's energy, petrochemical and industrial sectors.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261104200938/en/
Fluor will leverage its global engineering, procurement, construction and project management expertise with Inelectra's nearly 60 years of local market knowledge, established relationships and proven execution capabilities.
“To support the increasing investment by international energy companies in Venezuela, we intend to create a locally anchored platform capable of delivering world-class project execution while maintaining the highest standards of quality and safety,” said Pierre Bechelany, Fluor’s Business Group President of Energy Solutions. “By combining both our companies’ local and global capabilities, we will deliver critical projects that support long-term economic growth throughout Venezuela."
Fluor has a long history of delivering projects in Venezuela, having completed more than 40 capital projects since 1982 across the upstream, downstream, petrochemical and power sectors. Among the company’s flagship projects was the Hamaca Crude Upgrader, where a Fluor-Inelectra joint venture developed crude upgrading facilities at the Jose Industrial Complex. When completed in 2004, the facility was capable of producing up to 190,000 barrels of extra-heavy crude oil per day.
Inelectra is Venezuela’s largest engineering and construction firm, combining technical expertise with an integrated approach to create value for clients in the energy sector. It has offices in Caracas, Puerto La Cruz, and Maracaibo, Venezuela.
About Fluor Corporation
Fluor Corporation (NYSE: FLR) is building a better world by applying world-class expertise to solve its clients’ greatest challenges. Fluor’s nearly 23,500 employees provide professional and technical solutions that deliver safe, well-executed, capital-efficient projects to clients around the world. Fluor had revenue of $15.5 billion in 2025 and is ranked 292 among the Fortune 500 companies. With headquarters in Irving, Texas, Fluor has provided engineering, procurement, construction and maintenance services for more than a century. For more information, please visit www.fluor.com or follow Fluor on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X and YouTube.
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Hamaca Crude Upgrader Project, a Fluor-Inelectra joint venture that developed crude upgrading facilities at the Jose Industrial Complex. When completed in 2004, the facility was capable of producing up to 190,000 barrels of extra-heavy crude oil per day.
