Really High Steel

Really High SteelThe damn thing wobbled. The satellite floated like some giant oil barrel kicked overboard at sea, only it was 18 feet tall and 12 feet wide and the sea shone 300 miles below.Astronauts Pierre Thuot and Richard Hieb had trained for years to nab this floating barrel—a stranded multimillion-dollar communications relay known as Intelsat VI (F-3)—and direct it into the open bay doors of the space shuttle Endeavour. They had practiced every move they would make in this daring space wa...