The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, formerly known as the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer, has reached the end of its journey. Launched into orbit in 2004, the space telescope completed an extraordinary 22-year mission when it plunged back into Earth’s atmosphere on Wednesday.

“Swift delivered an incredible, lasting return on investment for the nation, designed for a two-year primary mission but productive for more than 10 times as long,” Shawn Domagal-Goldman, director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA, said in a statement last month .

NASA says the telescope hit the atmosphere Wednesday at 7:39 am ET, just four hours after the space agency predicted.

The space telescope entered orbit over the North Sumatra region of Indonesia, just west of Malaysia. NASA says that most of the space telescope likely burned up upon reentry but that some components may have survived.

In preparation for Swift’s reentry, NASA shut down operations in late October after conducting its final observation on Oct. 20.…