Artist's rendering of the Swift spacecraft with a gamma-ray burst going off in the background. Swift is a multi-wavelength space observatory dedicated to the study of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Its three instruments work together to observe GRBs and their afterglows in the gamma-ray, X-ray, ultraviolet, and optical wavebands. Based on continuous scans of the area of the sky with one of the instrument's monitors, Swift uses momentum wheels to autonomously slew into the direction of possible GRBs. The name "Swift" is not a mission-related acronym, but rather a reference to the instrument's rapid slew capability, and the nimble bird of the same name. All of Swift's discoveries are transmitted to the ground and those data are available to other observatories which join Swift in observing the GRBs. Release date May 26, 2010.