Aug. 11, 1960: 1st Object Successfully Recovered from Orbit

On Aug. 11, 1960, part of the Discoverer 13 satellite became the first human-made object to be recovered from Earth's orbit. 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