Image: Artist’s concept of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory in orbit. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab.
NASA has ended the science mission of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, a satellite that spent almost 22 years watching sudden events in space. Its last observation was on 20 October 2026, after its falling orbit made steady telescope pointing impossible, NASA said in a 23 October mission update.
Why could Swift no longer observe?
Even hundreds of kilometres above Earth, traces of atmosphere gradually slow a satellite. NASA says recent solar activity increased this drag on Swift. By 20 October, the spacecraft had descended to about 275 kilometres and entered safe mode. Controllers then sent a command ending its operations, NASA’s mission blog reported.
NASA had explored a mission to raise Swift’s orbit, but the servicing effort ended in August without a boost attempt. The spacecraft remains in orbit for now. NASA expects it to re-enter the atmosphere in the coming weeks, though that timing is an estimate.
What did Swift help astronomers see?
Launched on 20 November 2004, Swift was built to study gamma-ray bursts: brief, powerful flashes from distant cosmic events. It could detect a burst, alert other observatories to its position and turn its own telescopes toward the fading glow. That rapid sequence typically took about a minute, according to NASA’s account of the mission.
NASA says Swift observed more than 2,000 gamma-ray bursts and more than 1,400 supernovae. It also studied comets, asteroids and activity around black holes. Its observations remain in a public archive that researchers can continue to examine.
