spacecraft

‘It was a miracle.’ Amazing tales of dead spacecraft that came back to life

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The CIRBE cubesat in the clean room at the University of Boulder, Colorado.

The hulk of metal moved silently through space, high above the blue Earth. Power no longer coursed through its wires, its instruments were dead to the outside universe, and its communications antenna was silent. To all intents and purposes it was deceased, and almost everyone back home had given up on it. Almost everyone. Despite … Read more

Piece of Apollo 11 spacecraft ‘lands’ in moon meteorite-lined wedding ring

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For better or for worse, a small part of the Apollo 11 spacecraft will now be Jon Mesick’s to have and to hold for all the days of his life. The strip of golden thermal polyimide tape, which made the trip to the moon with the first astronauts to land there in 1969, is now … Read more