On Aug. 11, 1960, part of the Discoverer 13 satellite became the first human-made object to be recovered from Earth's orbit.<br /><br />The United States Department of Defense launched the mission as part of the C.I.A.'s Corona spy satellite program. They wanted to see if they could return a satellite's instrument package to Earth safely and gently enough to retrieve the object intact. The reentry capsule was a big, bowl-shaped hunk of metal that weighed about 120 pounds and contained only an American flag. After deploying a heat shield and parachute, the capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. A Navy helicopter pulled it out of the water and airlifted it to a ship, which brought it back to Pearl Harbor.
