NASA's Swift Observatory Didn't Fail. It Outlasted Expectations by Two Decades.
Swift diligently provided some of the most important astronomical observations for over 22 years.Credit: NASA
It's official: The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, which left Earth on November 20, 2004, returned to it on November 4, 2026. What's left of the spacecraft has now touched down, though only micro-particles will have survived the heat of reentry.
Last year, with Swift experiencing steep orbital degradation and time quickly running out, NASA agreed to let a private plane-boosted rocket attempt to push the observatory back into a sustainable orbit. Katalyst Space Technologies' LINK spacecraft launched on June 27, 2026, and very quickly experienced two reaction wheel failures, causing it to spin out of control. Despite a valiant effort to correct LINK's journey, the rendezvous mission failed, and all hope of saving Swift was lost.
It's true that Swift could potentially have lived longer, but 22 years is still a very long...
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