In Hangar AE at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station a technician performs blanket closeouts on the Swift spacecraft.

In Hangar AE at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, a technician performs blanket closeouts on the Swift spacecraft. The blankets provide thermal stability during the mission. Swift is a first-of-its-kind multi-wavelength observatory dedicated to the study of gamma-ray burst (GRB) science. Its three instruments will work together to observe GRBs and afterglows in the gamma ray, X-ray, ultraviolet and optical wavebands. The most comprehensive study of GRB afterglows to date, Swift is expected to observe more than 200 gamma-ray bursts during its 2-year mission.