Dark room illuminated by blue laser sensors scanning nanotube fibers during the spinning process for space tether quality assurance.

This footage is from NASA’s STS-75 mission aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia in February 1996. This was the “Tether Incident” involving the Tethered Satellite System (TSS-1R) experiment, a joint NASA/Italian Space Agency effort. After the tether broke, the crew used onboard cameras (including a low-light or special video camera, often described as sensitive to certain wavelengths) to film the drifting satellite and tether for documentation and analysis. In the video:• The long, straight white li

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