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Police lieutenant serves as the only female SWAT commander across all 16 FIFA host cities

By CNN

TX: ONLY WOMAN SWAT COMMANDER AMONG ALL FIFA HOST CITIES

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    DALLAS (KTVT) — FIFA World Cup organizers estimate North Texas will host about four million people during the tournament, more than any other host city.

Soccer fans from around the world bring their fandom to Dallas Stadium in Arlington for nine FIFA World Cup games. Law enforcement agencies are making sure people are safe while supporting their teams. That includes Arlington Police Lieutenant Ja’Nae McGee.

“I joined the SWAT team in 2022, and from there, it was preparation for FIFA,” McGee said.

Lt. McGee is the only female commander leading a SWAT team among the 16 FIFA host cities.

“The reality is being a female in law enforcement is very different than being a male, and as long as we create that sisterhood and that bond with one another, I think it carries on through generations,” McGee said.

Lt. McGee decided to go into law enforcement after seeing her cousin work as an officer for the Arlington Police Department. The World Cup assignment is perfect for her; she played soccer in high school and in college.

She leads 45 officers on her team and ensures the SWAT unit has everything needed to be prepared for emergencies.

“We needed armor, and we need additional resources for tactical operations,” McGee said.

Part of the preparation included additional training.

“We came up with a big training for the Metro that was spearheaded by Arlington FD, and that was a simulation of a huge drone attack,” McGee said. “It showed us where we need to work on and how we need to work on things.”

The Arlington Police Department partners with other agencies for the World Cup.

“We’ve relied heavily on our federal partners, which include the FBI and DPS, and they help us out at the games as a reaction team for outside and interior support when we’re inside the stadium. Then we also rely on Mansfield, who covers us in our absence from the city,” McGee said.

France takes on Spain at Dallas Stadium for a semi-final match on Tuesday, July 14. Lt. McGee assured her team is ready.

“We get up early, we bring the team in, we get briefed, everyone gets into positions, and then it’s more of we’re here for presence and assistance, and everyone’s having a good time,” McGee said.

The mother of a seven-year-old girl hopes to be a role model for other young women while protecting fans from any potential danger.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

A mission to save NASA’s falling observatory spun out of control. What happens next

By CNN
(CNN) — A daring mission to rescue one of NASA’s crucial space observatories from falling to Earth has encountered issues of its own — but there may still be hope for both spacecraft to beat the odds.The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has served as an astrophysics multitool in low-Earth orbit since it launched nearly 22 years ago, acting as NASA’s first responder in space when celestial objects flare with activity, according to mission scientists.But atmospheric drag intensified by solar activity exerted its forces on the observatory. Without any intervention, Swift is likely to reenter our planet’s atmosphere this fall once it sinks below an optimal altitude of about 185 miles (300 kilometers) above Earth, according to NASA’s predictions.The agency selected Arizona-based Katalyst Space Technologies to design, build, test and launch — all in the span of just nine months — a spacecraft capable of rendezvousing with Swift and boosting its orbit.The robotic satellite, named LINK, launched on July 3. It lifted off on a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket, which was released midair by the company’s modified L-1011 aircraft, Stargazer.Everything appeared to go according to plan until LINK began to spin in space around July 25, causing a temporary loss of communications, Katalyst and NASA said on July 28.While LINK’s spin now appears to be largely under control, the satellite’s rendezvous with Swift is facing a delay. Now, it remains unclear whether LINK will reach the observatory in time.“I think one of the difficult things to convey is how amazing it is that we’ve gotten this far,” said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, division director of astrophysics at NASA, during a June 17 news conference. “Even if everyone does everything perfectly, there still might be risks that we cannot control ahead of us. I’m just deeply thankful that we’re even giving this a go.”Here’s everything that has happened so far.A tumble in the timelineAfter LINK’s successful launch into orbit, Katalyst’s mission operations team confirmed it was in communication with the satellite.Katalyst’s original plan included a few weeks of health checks for LINK’s navigation and sensors in space.Both Katalyst and NASA reported about a week after launch that commissioning was going according to plan. The satellite had deployed its solar arrays and was firing its thrusters.Katalyst said on July 13 that LINK was halfway through the activation phase. Two days later, NASA posted a similar update but also said the team had run into some issues.“The Katalyst team also quickly addressed early communications and attitude control issues seen during flight operations, including an issue with one of the spacecraft’s three reaction wheels,” according to NASA’s post on July 15. “After identifying the cause, they implemented flight software patches and operational updates that restored reliable communications and stable attitude control.”Katalyst said over a week later that the team was validating LINK’s performance, and the spacecraft was preparing for its upcoming rendezvous with Swift. Part of the process included increasing the duration of the satellite’s thruster burns to get ready for the multi-hour firings needed while grappling the observatory.But on July 28, the company said LINK had been in a multi-axis spin for three days.“Preliminary investigation shows that two of LINK’s three reaction wheels currently are not operable, and there is some loss of functionality in its cold gas thruster system,” NASA shared in a post that day, adding that Katalyst had a plan to reduce the spin and would reassess any plans related to Swift.Two days later, Katalyst provided an update that the team had reduced LINK’s spin rate from about 9 degrees per second to 4 degrees per second using a series of thruster burns.“Teams also further evaluated LINK’s functionality and determined there are still potential paths forward for a boost,” NASA shared in a post on July 31. “NASA is working closely with Katalyst to consider revised, innovative approaches.”Now, Katalyst has confirmed it is making progress with LINK to restore its original mission to save Swift. The mission team has curbed the spacecraft’s spin rate to 1.47 degrees per second. LINK will maintain this rotation speed while the team prepares for its next steps, the company said on Wednesday.“The team used one of LINK’s electric propulsion thrusters to slow the spacecraft down, consuming less than 100 grams of propellant to conserve fuel for the rendezvous and boost phase of the mission,” Katalyst said in its post.The mission team plans to send a flight software update that will restore LINK’s orientation in space and allow for the maneuvers necessary to align the satellite’s orbit with that of the observatory.A risky rescue missionOriginally, LINK was expected to conduct a survey of Swift, presumably at the end of July, to determine the best grappling points on the observatory, but that’s now expected to happen a month later.After securing Swift in its grasp, LINK will carefully fire its three ion thrusters, aiming to boost the observatory back to its original orbit over the course of two to three months.It’s unclear how the delay will impact the original plans for the mission, but prior to the satellite’s launch, members of the Swift and LINK teams both acknowledged that the path to boosting the observatory was full of risks that could cause the mission to fail.“All of this is challenging and risky,” said Kieran Wilson, principal investigator for LINK at Katalyst, during a June 17 news conference. “There’s a lot of spacecraft that have had far longer development cycles with far more funding behind them that have failed for mundane reasons.”Named for fast-flying swift birds due to its ability to pivot rapidly to peer at cosmic events and afterglows, the telescope has enabled the study of comets, gravitational waves and black holes over long periods of time.With no plans on the horizon for a telescope that has Swift’s unique capabilities, NASA decided it was more cost-effective to try to save the observatory. To prevent a drainage of power, Swift isn’t currently making science observations, but that could change this fall if LINK is successful.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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