---
title: "NASA launched an emergency mission to stop the Swift Observatory from crashing to Earth — Stuff That Spins"
description: "The Swift Observatory was launched in 2004, but recent solar storms have pushed its orbit lower, and it's in danger of burning up in Earth's atmosphere as soon as this year. To try and stave off its demise, NASA has enlisted Katalyst Space Technologies. The company's Link spacecraft launched Friday…"
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keywords: ["SpinGraph", "spin analysis", "GEO"]
date: "2026-07-04T19:06:27+00:00"
modified: "2026-07-04T20:02:15.26774+00:00"
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# NASA launched an emergency mission to stop the Swift Observatory from crashing to Earth

**Source:** Unknown  
**Published:** July 4, 2026  
**Original:** https://www.theverge.com/science/961459/nasa-emergency-save-swift-observatory-katalyst-space-technologies  

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*HTML version: https://stuffthatspins.com/spin/nasa-launched-an-emergency-mission-to-stop-the-swift-observatory-from-crashing-to-earth*
