On Cape Canaveral Air Force Station CCAFS places a new solar cell on the Swift spacecraft's solar array.

In the clean room at NASA’s Hangar AE on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS), a Spectrolab technician, Anna Herrera, places a new solar cell on the Swift spacecraft’s solar array. 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 main mission objectives for Swift are to determine the origin of gamma-ray bursts, classify gamma-ray bursts and search for new types, determine how the blast wave evolves and interacts with the surroundings, use gamma-ray bursts to study the early universe and perform the first sensitive hard X-ray survey of the sky. Swift is scheduled to launch Oct. 26 from Launch Pad 17-A, CCAFS, on a Boeing Delta 7320 rocket.