NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory re-entered Earth's atmosphere on November 4 at 7:39 EST over the North Sumatra region of Indonesia, according to the Astronomy Picture of the Day entry published November 6, 2026. The satellite had operated for nearly 22 years.

Swift carried a combination of instruments, including an X-ray telescope, a gamma-ray telescope and an Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope, which worked together to study the universe's fastest and most energetic explosions. The APOD entry credits NASA and Swift, with AndreaMosaic, for an image described as a 2018 mosaic built from some of the first million images captured by the ultraviolet/optical instrument. The page says the most recent solar maximum accelerated the decay of the satellite's orbit and that an effort to rescue Swift by boosting its orbit was not successful.

The APOD notes that data gathered during the mission will continue to support astronomy research.