Q&A: Boosting NASA's Swift Observatory to support continued space observation

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NASA's "rapid-response" space telescope is slowly falling out of orbit, but a daring mission this summer could allow the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory to continue scanning the sky for many more years to come. In the first mission of its kind, a spacecraft will launch from Earth and rendezvous with Swift to boost it to a higher altitude and extend its life.

Working together on the boost mission are Katalyst Space of Flagstaff, Arizona; NASA's Swift team, which includes the Mission Operations Center at Penn State; NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center; and Northrop Grumman.

Since its launch in 2004, Swift has observed the most explosive events in the universe, called gamma-ray bursts, and a myriad of other phenomena. Its ability to rapidly point in the direction of cosmic events, sometimes on the scale of minutes, and to alert other observatories to follow up has provided critical information for astronomical breakthroughs.

In this Q&A, John Nousek, Swift's director of mission operations and professor of astronomy and astrophysics, and Michael Siegel, Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope lead and research professor of astronomy and astrophysics, both in the Penn State Eberly College of Science, discuss Swift's role in scientific discovery, the upcoming boost mission and activities at the Swift Mission Operations Center.

Siegel: Swift was originally designed to find and quickly observe gamma-ray bursts, which are some of the most powerful explosions in the universe. These explosions last only a few milliseconds to a few minutes. Their afterglows, which can produce X-rays, optical light and radio waves, can last from minutes to months.

When Swift's Burst Alert Telescope detects a burst, it automatically orients the spacecraft to take a closer look with its other two instruments, the X-ray Telescope and the Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope. It also acts as a dispatcher, broadcasting the location to ground and space observatories that can follow up as well.

Nousek: When NASA announced Swift as part of its Explorer Mission, 53 groups submitted proposals. In the end, the Penn State proposal with our collaborators at NASA Goddard and several international institutions was selected, I think in part, due to the expertise in instrumentation at Penn State.

We led the development of two of the three Swift instruments. Specifically, Penn State managed the electronics and provided the flig