21.01.2022

On the evening of Tuesday, Jan. 18, NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory entered into safe mode, suspending pointed science observations. The mission team is investigating a possible failure of one of the spacecraft's reaction wheels as the cause.

The team has powered off the suspected wheel. The observatory and all its instruments are otherwise healthy and operating as anticipated. The observatory will remain in safe mode as a precaution while the team further investigates the issue.

Swift has a total of six reaction wheels onboard. The team is working to restore science operations using five reaction wheels. The remaining five wheels are all working as expected. This is the first time a reaction wheel has experienced a failure in Swift's 17 years of operations.

Swift studies high-energy events in the universe such as gamma ray bursts, which may come from black holes being born from dying stars. Stay tuned to nasa.gov/swift for more updates.

Quelle: NASA