"Satellite Rescue: Mission Success as Spacecraft is Freed from Snag"
Engineers successfully rescued a satellite, the Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD-1), from a wire snag that had caused it to become tangled during deployment in space. The satellite, designed to demonstrate how to deploy modular satellites in space, encountered multiple challenges during deployment, including a jamming issue that had never been seen in laboratory testing. Despite these setbacks, the satellite ultimately succeeded in its mission, gathering solar energy for over 240 days using new types of solar cells. The troubleshooting process has provided valuable insights for future satellite designs, and the hope is to mass-produce these cells to make solar power more affordable.