Swift burned up on Wednesday. The rescue had already failed.

WASHINGTON — Reuters reported that NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, about 22 years old and roughly 3,200 pounds, re-entered as expected on Wednesday and burned in the atmosphere over Indonesia. The U.S. Space Force confirmed the re-entry at 7:39 a.m. Eastern, about 22 times the speed of sound, over North Sumatra, roughly 200 miles north of the equator. NASA said Wednesday that it expected most of the spacecraft to burn up as it traveled through the atmosphere, but that some components may have survived re-entry. It reported no damage or injuries on the ground. The Space Force had put the chance of harm to anyone on Earth at one in 2,100.

The end came less than three months after a rescue spacecraft failed to boost Swift into a higher orbit. Thursday’s science note, the enamel proteins from the Chinese teeth, stays filed. This is Friday’s science note. The paper on the teeth was May. The fall of Swift was Wednesday.

NASA expected most of the spacecraft to burn up as it traveled through the atmosphere, but some components may have survived re-entry.

The photograph is not the fireball. It is the LINK rescue craft that flew the failed mission, waiting to be encapsulated at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on June 8. Ron Beard, NASA, via Reuters. It is not Swift, and it is not Wednesday.