The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory

The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory (Swift) is a NASA medium explorer mission launched in 2004. Swift was designed with two primary scientific objectives: (1) to precisely localize gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and promptly relay their positions to other observatories; and (2) to characterize the GRB afterglow phase at X-ray and UV/optical wavelengths. To achieve these objectives, Swift carries three instruments onboard: a wide-field, hard X-ray Burst Alert Telescope (BAT), a focusing soft X-Ray Telescope (XRT), and a 30 cm UV-Optical Telescope (UVOT). Swift is a first-of-its-kind autonomous rapid-slewing satellite for transient astronomy, pioneering the way for future time-domain and multi-messenger missions. This chapter describes the three instruments on-board Swift, the ground system that enables prompt dissemination of all data products to the community and provides a brief summary of science highlights to date.