In May 1992, after two failed attempts to capture a 4.5-tonne communications satellite with a specially built tool, three astronauts left Endeavour together and grabbed the free-flying spacecraft with their gloved hands — the first, and still only, three-person spacewalk in history

In May 1992, after two failed attempts to capture a 4.5-tonne communications satellite with a specially built tool, three astronauts left Endeavour together and grabbed the free-flying spacecraft with their gloved hands — the first, and still only, three-person spacewalk in history

The moment people remember from STS-49 looks almost improvised: three astronauts in white suits, fixed to foot restraints and handholds around a huge black communications satellite, reaching for hardware that was not supposed to be grabbed that way. It was improvised, but not careless. By the time Pierre Thuot, Richard Hieb and Thomas Akers went outside Endeavour together in May 1992, NASA had already watched two careful attempts fail. The choic…