There has been one hiccup: In August, an unmanned spacecraft veered out of control during a test flight and had to be destroyed.

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Early in the year, a Soyuz rocket carrying an unmanned Progress spacecraft suffered a launch failure, a failure that had some concerned that NASA might decide to leave the International Space Station without a crew.

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Astrium's plan to tackle defunct satellites is to use an unmanned chase spacecraft to get in range, fire a barbed harpoon into the body of the rogue hardware and then use a smaller propulsion unit attached to a tether to tow it back towards the atmosphere where it will burn up safely on re-entry.

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As Gemini 8 Command Pilot, his March 16, 1966 mission with Pilot David Scott entailed complex rendezvous and docking maneuvers with an unmanned Agena target vehicle which ultimately required recovery from a harrowing, out-of-control spacecraft roll.

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Before leaving the space station, the Progress 47 spacecraft conducted a test of an upgraded docking system that Russia intends to use on future unmanned Progress and manned Soyuz vehicles.

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