After more than a decade of dedicated service, NASA’s NEOWISE spacecraft has officially retired. 10 years of tirelessly scanning the skies, keeping an eye out for anything that might pose a danger to Earth. On Thursday, the team behind NEOWISE sent a final command, instructing the spacecraft to switch off its transmitter for good—a bittersweet moment that marked the end of its remarkable career.
Launched back in 2009 under the name WISE, its original task was to map the entire sky in infrared, which it did with flying colours. But just when you might think its job was done, NEOWISE came back from a brief "retirement" to take on a new role: finding asteroids and comets that could potentially threaten Earth. It adapted, learned new skills, and kept working, even when the challenges grew tougher.
NEOWISE has been steadily losing altitude in its orbit around Earth, making it harder to do its job. The Sun's increased activity was like the clock ticking towards the end of a shift, pushing NEOWISE lower and lower until NASA decided it was time to let it rest. The spacecraft will eventually burn up in our planet’s atmosphere, making its final departure in late 2024.
During its time on the job, NEOWISE achieved more than anyone could have expected. It discovered over 3,000 near-Earth objects, including asteroids and comets, and made over 1.45 million infrared measurements of other celestial bodies. NEOWISE even found 25 new comets, including the famous comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE, which many of us got to see streaking across the night sky in 2020.
Though NEOWISE has retired, its work will live on. The data it collected will continue to be a valuable resource for scientists for years to come. NEOWISE also helped lay the groundwork for its successor, NEO Surveyor, a new space telescope that will take up the mantle and continue the mission of protecting Earth from space hazards. NEO Surveyor is set to launch in 2027, ensuring that NEOWISE’s legacy of hard work and dedication will continue in the next generation.