The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory was a U.S. satellite observatory designed to quickly turn toward gamma-ray bursts during their first few seconds. It was launched on November 20, 2004. Its gamma-ray telescope first detected a burst, then the spacecraft moved so an X-ray telescope and an ultraviolet-optical telescope could observe it. The mission was renamed in 2018 for American astrophysicist Neil Gehrels, its principal investigator until his death in 2017. Solar storms in 2024 puffed up the outer layers of Earth’s atmosphere and increased drag on the satellite. Re-entry was predicted for 2026. A rescue mission that year failed, and NASA ended the mission on October 23, 2026.
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