Photo: NASA

About the Swift Mission Operations Center

The Swift Mission Operations Center (MOC), located at Penn State University in University Park, Pennsylvania, is responsible for operating and controlling the satellite and for receiving and distributing data from Swift about gamma-ray bursts. MOC scientists also are responsible for planning Swift observations, for commanding and uploading software to the satellite, for verifying the health and safety of the satellite and its instruments, and for quickly reviewing the gamma-ray-burst data as it arrives.

The MOC receives almost all of Swift's data--in the range of six thousand million bytes per day--via a transmission station in Kenya maintained by the Italian Space Agency. A small portion of Swift's data--about fifty thousand bytes per day--is delivered via TDRSS (Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System) simultaneously to the MOC at Penn State and to the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, which shares the data with astronomers worldwide through Swift's gamma-ray-burst coordinates network (GCN).

The Penn State team at the MOC also built and tested Swift's X-ray and UV/optical telescopes, along with the Swift partners at the University of Leicester and Mullard Space Science Laboratory in England and the Brera Observatory in Italy.

Reports from the Field

Penn State science writer Barbara Kennedy was at Cape Canaveral with John Nousek and other Penn State scientists for the launch of the Swift gamma-ray-burst observatory. This is a series of reports she has sent from the site about the launch.

Dispatch #1: Tuesday, 16 November 2004 — The Swift Mission

Dispatch #2: Wednesday, 17 November 2004 — Swift Launch Delayed

Dispatch #3: Thursday,18 November 2004— Still on the Ground

Dispatch #4: Friday, 19 November 2004 — Swift Launch Again Ready to Go

Dispatch #5: Saturday, 20 November 2004 — Swift Launch is Successful

Reports from the Mission Operations Center

Penn State science writer Dana Bauer was at the Mission Operations Center for the launch of the Swift satellite, and has sent this report:

Dispatch #1: Saturday, 20 November 2004 — Swift in State College