Click for next articleOn Aug. 11, 1960, part of the Discoverer 13 satellite became the first human-made object to be recovered from Earth's orbit. They wanted to see if they could return a satellite's instrument package to Earth safely and gently enough to retrieve the object intact. At this point, all variety of capsules and spacecraft have not only gone out into space, but returned. This momentous milestone proved that it was possible for something to hurtle back through our atmosphere from space, survive the journey and be recovered. The return journey sends whatever object (or whoever's on board) through our atmosphere at searing speeds and even more searing temperatures.