During the second half of the 20th century, space agencies began to take a keen interest in the use of tethers in space. In 1992, NASA and the Italian Space Agency jointly launched the first tether satellite, TSS-1, from the Space Shuttle, but a protruding bolt kept the tether—a thin, super-strong, conductive cable—from fully extending. The next tether satellite mission, TSS-1R, was undertaken in 1996 with plans to extend the tether to a range of more than 12 mi (19 km). What went wrong? Discuss