Space Thief Returns Satellite

More than 30 years after “borrowing” a satellite, Robert Farquhar, a former mission design specialist for NASA, wants to return the spacecraft back to the spot it was originally supposed to call home. Farquhar diverted the International Sun-Earth Explorer-3 (ISEE-3) in order to intercept a comet called Giacobini-Zinner in 1985, which he managed to do months before the rest of the world’s space probes intercepted Halley’s Comet, making it the world’s first successful comet flyby. Farquhar says he programmed the satellite from the very beginning to come back to its originally intended spot—so it wasn’t technically stealing.