Astronomy Colloquium: Biard Lecture

The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has been NASA's premier facility for rapid-response observations of transient and multi-messenger sources for over two decades. With powerful new wide-field facilities such as Rubin, Roman, and DSA coming online in the coming years, demand for this capability will only grow. However, due to increased atmospheric drag from enhanced solar activity in the last 18 months, Swift's orbital altitude has dropped to the point where atmospheric re-entry is anticipated later this year. Here I'll describe NASA-funded efforts to capture and boost Swift to a higher orbit, extending its scientific lifetime while also demonstrating a critical capability - robotic satellite servicing - for the US space industry.