NASA's Swift resumes science operations

April 9th, 2024

Swift, illustrated here, is a collaboration between NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, Penn State in University Park, the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, and Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems in Dulles, Virginia. Other partners include the University of Leicester and Mullard Space Science Laboratory in the United Kingdom, Brera Observatory in Italy, and the Italian Space Agency. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory resumed science observations April 3 following a successful software update that enables the spacecraft to function using only two gyroscopes (gyros).

Swift entered safe mode March 15 after experiencing degrading performance from one of its three remaining gyros. The rest of the spacecraft has remained in good health during this time.

The team will monitor the observatory's performance over the coming days as Swift continues its mission to observe the universe's most energetic sources.

Provided by NASA