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[Music throughout]
Satellite names aren't always easy to understand,

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but NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory
states its key ability up front.

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Launched on Nov. 20, 2004,

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Swift is first and foremost a rapid response

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gamma-ray burst explorer.

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Gamma-ray bursts, or GRBs,

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are the most powerful explosions
in the universe.

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They arise when massive stars
run out of fuel and collapse,

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or when pairs of orbiting neutron stars
collide.

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GRBs can be as brief
as a few milliseconds, are very rare,

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and happen in distant galaxies,
which makes them hard to spot.

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Despite this, Swift has managed to observe
1,800 GRBs.

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Scientists and engineers designed

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Swift's GRB detector to see large
portions of the sky and quickly

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relay a GRB’s location to the ground
so other missions could follow up.

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They also enabled Swift to change where
it's looking very rapidly so it can target

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its X-ray and ultraviolet/optical
telescopes on any detected event.

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Swift owes much of its existence
to Neil Gehrels,

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who was a scientist at NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center.

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Neil was a global figure in gamma-ray
astronomy 

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and gamma-ray bursts in particular.

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He was part of the small group
that first imagined Swift in 1998

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and was instrumental in seeing it through
to launch and into its early mission.

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After Neil passed away in 2017,

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Swift was renamed in his honor.

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Over its 20 years of operation,

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Swift has proven
incredibly useful and versatile.

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Its rapid detection, alerts,
and repointing have allowed missions

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like NASA's Chandra, Webb and Hubble to quickly
follow up on transient events.

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Beyond GRB detections, Swift's
X-ray and ultraviolet/optical telescopes

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have enabled it to perform science
that no one imagined prior to launch.

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Swift has tracked near-Earth asteroids,

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observed more distant asteroid collisions,
studied comets,

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seen massive flares on distant stars,

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taken ultraviolet surveys of nearby galaxies,

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and made countless observations
of short-lived cosmic phenomena.

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Despite the failure of one of the
spinning reaction wheels

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that enable Swift's rapid turning,

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the spacecraft remains as nimble
as it was in its first year,

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and it promises to remain a critical first

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responder in NASA's astrophysics fleet.

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[NASA]