In November 1984, Dale Gardner and Joseph Allen stepped outside their vehicle to retrieve two broken pieces of equipment. This could have been a very unremarkable task if not for the location of the work: 340 km from the surface of Earth. The mission of Gardner and Allen and their fellow crew members aboard the space shuttle Discovery (STS 51-A) was to deploy two telecommunication satellites and to retrieve two other ones that were stranded in LEO. At the time, this commercial mission was seen as a testament to the original vision of the space shuttle – a versatile spacecraft capable of carrying crew and cargo for scientific, military and commercial missions. The “For Sale” sign held by Gardner gave the impression that spaceflight was now a routine, albeit costly activity (Fig. 2.1).


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