Fact Sheet
High Maintenance
The Solar Maximum Mission satellite sits in the cargo bay of space shuttle Challenger in April 1984. Solar Max was launched in 1980 to monitor the Sun as the number of sunspots increased over the following years. But it shut down a few months later. Astronauts George Nelson and James van Hoften repaired Solar Max during this shuttle mission, and on April 11 they returned it to orbit, where it operated for another five and a half years. [Credit: NASA]
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