NASA concludes NEOWISE’s decade-long asteroid hunting mission

The Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) spacecraft used to help detect near-Earth objects, like asteroids and comets has officially reached the end of its mission. On Thursday, August 8, 2024, NASA send the final hibernation command from the Earth Orbiting Missions Operation Center at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. First launched in December 2009 as WISE, the spacecraft observed more than 3,000 NEOs through years of observations. Spaceflight Now traveled to JPL to speak with Amy Mainzer, the principal investigator of both NEOWISE and the forthcoming NEO Surveyor. She described the importance of the NEOWISE mission, the legacy it leaves behind and the progress towards the NEO Surveyor mission, which is set to launch no earlier than September 2027. Read more: Chapters: • 00:00 Intro • 01:01 Early