launched from USA

Swift

Success
NOV 20200417:16:00 UTC

Swift was built to catch gamma-ray bursts in the act: its wide-field burst monitor detects a burst and slews the spacecraft within seconds so its X-ray and ultraviolet/optical telescopes can study the fading afterglow before it disappears. The observatory has since localised hundreds of bursts a year and remains a workhorse of time-domain astronomy.

launched from SLC-17A Canaveral

aboard Delta II 7320 into LEO

Payload

Swift

Gamma-ray research

last updated May 29, 2026