‘Station Keeping’: The Mir space station has been a docking port for many of the world powers’ journeys into space, giving countries such as Syria, Afghanistan and France the capability to train their cosmonauts for long stays in orbit. Meanwhile NASA launched Discovery in September 1988, returning the US to space for the first time since the tragedy of the Challenger voyage in 1986. One of the most exciting missions was the delivery of the Hubble Space Telescope to orbit in April of 1990, until a fault in one of the mirrors was discovered, rendering the telescope …
