Swift is done because its orbit fell.
Fact
The facts: on 23 October 2026 NASA announced the end of the science mission of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. Its final observation was on 20 October. Swift orbits less than 171 miles (275 kilometres) above Earth, where greater atmospheric drag keeps its telescopes from observing targets steadily. It is expected to re-enter the atmosphere within weeks. It launched on 20 November 2004, was designed for a two-year primary mission and worked more than ten times longer.
Swift was built for gamma-ray bursts: outbursts that come and go so fast that big telescopes cannot turn to them in time. Swift detects them, tells other observatories where they are and swings its own telescopes there, usually in about a minute. That is how, by NASA's count, it caught more than 2000. In May 2005 it catches GRB 050509B, a burst that lasted 0.03 seconds: it turns in time for 11 X-ray photons, and that is the first short burst with a detected afterglow. The observations validated long-standing theoretical models in which short bursts likely come from the merger of two neutron stars.
Designed for two years. Worked more than ten times longer.
Swift data sits in about 7000 published scientific papers. The archive spans nearly 22 years, with more than 1.5 million images from the ultraviolet and optical telescope, about 12 terabytes in all, and it is publicly available.
The gap is in the rapid response Swift was built for. NASA says it will fill it with the missions it already has while it looks for new ways to react quickly to cosmic events.
Official primary sources
NASA Science - NASA's Swift Mission Ends, Leaves Behind Scientific Bonanza, 23.10.2026The visual is generated code-art, no third-party images.