'We are not giving up yet': Private mission to rescue NASA's Swift telescope is spinning out of control, and engineers are racing to fix it

Katalyst Space's LINK spacecraft is recovering from an unexpected spin in orbit, and will need a little more time to rescue NASA's falling Swift observatory.

The top 3

  1. Hubble Servicing Missions: Unprecedented Repairs: NASA's five Space Shuttle missions to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope were among the most intricate and successful in space history, extending its life by decades and correcting its initial mirror flaw.
  2. Skylab's Uncontrolled Re-entry Scare: America's first space station, Skylab, experienced an uncontrolled re-entry in 1979, causing international concern before its fragments largely landed in the Indian Ocean and parts of Australia.
  3. Apollo 13: A "Successful Failure": The Apollo 13 mission in 1970 famously suffered an in-flight explosion within its service module's oxygen tank, requiring ingenious improvisation by astronauts and ground control to safely return the crew to Earth, earning it the moniker 'successful failure'.

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