In 1998 ground controllers lost contact with the Sun-watching SOHO spacecraft and feared it might be gone for good, until the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico pinged the silent, slowly tumbling

At 01:16 Paris time on 25 June 1998, during routine maintenance operations, controllers lost contact with the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, known as SOHO, a joint spacecraft of the European Space Agency and NASA built to study the Sun. For weeks the craft was silent and its condition unknown. It was located again when a […] At 01:16 Paris time on 25 June 1998, during routine maintenance operations, controllers lost contact with the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, known as SOHO, a joint spacecraft of the European Space Agency and NASA built to study the Sun. For week... [5275 chars]