Farewell to NEOWISE: NASA’s Asteroid-Hunting Telescope

NASA’s NEOWISE mission ended on Aug. 8, 2024, after more than a decade of discovering and tracking near-Earth objects — asteroids and comets that come close to Earth’s orbit. The mission team gathered at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California as the spacecraft received its final command to turn off its transmitter, concluding the mission. Launched in 2009 as WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer), the space telescope completed its primary mission to conduct an all-sky survey in the infrared spectrum. The spacecraft was put into hibernation in 2011, then re-awakened in 2013 for a second career as NEOWISE (Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer). NEOWISE is expected to re-enter the atmosphere and safely burn up in late 2024. For more information on NEOWISE, visit: For NEOWISE data, visit: . Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/IPAC/UCLA; comet NEOWISE image: NASA/Bill Dunford