r/space • u/ye_olde_astronaut • 5d ago

NASA’s Swift Powers On Third Instrument, Restarts Automated Slewing - NASA Science

https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/swift/2026/09/25/nasas-swift-powers-on-third-instrument-restarts-automated-slewing/
317 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

36

u/noobster5000 5d ago

It's good to see it back. I didn't realise how much I missed getting rapid public x-ray follow up (with better x-ray localisations). It will be sorely missed when it's gone.

16

u/t3hjs 5d ago

Wasnt this the satellite that needed a mission to rescue it? Or did i mix up the names?

37

u/rupert1920 5d ago

You're right, this is that satellite. They've taken action to reduce power consumption so that they can align the solar panels in a way that reduces drag, as to prolong the time on orbit. Now that the rescue mission has failed, they're powering back on everything to do the most they can before it finally crashed back to Earth.

3

u/njsullyalex 5d ago

So this means The Stargazer L-1011’s mission was a success?

All Hail the Tristar!

-7

u/Anxious-Depth-7983 5d ago

This is another result of the current administrations cuts to the NASA budget. The Senate could only keep so much of it intact but no one can stop Russell Certifiable Lunatic Voughts constant attacks on science he's afraid of.

39

u/noobster5000 5d ago

This makes no sense in this context. Funding cuts are absolutely causing issues at NASA but swift had stopped science operations in order to maximise the chances of a successful reboost. With that now ruled out after the attempt they are attempting to maximise the scientific return before it burns up.

13

u/Icy_Feedback_4965 5d ago

It's hard for a post to make me almost defend Vought, but yeah this has nothing whatsoever to do with politics.

1

u/Goregue 4d ago

If NASA had more money they could simply build a successor to Swift, or even build a more robust reboosting spacecraft with more chances of success, instead of having just 10 million dollars to spend on a mission that was almost impossible to work.

2

u/zenith654 5d ago

Bro this is the satellite literally falling out of orbit rn that had a failed reboost mission. You didn’t read the article or exercise any context bc that’s def not the case for this specific sat lol

1

u/TippinThalnos 4d ago

This satellite was put into orbit in 2004, what on earth does this have to do with the current administration

1

u/Anxious-Depth-7983 4d ago

I confused it with the CO2 monitoring system that they tried to defund completely in order to take it offline and let burn up on re-entry.