Jetfire rushes to their rescue but a wayward satellite hits them and knocks them towards the atmosphere.

The story got another twist in January when the Columbia flew a mission to rescue a wayward satellite.

Martha DiSario, a spokeswoman for Intelsat, said it was possible that the wayward satellite might be rescued by the space shuttle and brought back to earth for relaunching.

It was the fourth mission to capture a wayward satellite in the 11-year history of the shuttle program, but the first such attempt since the 1986 Challenger disaster.

Two astronauts eventually grabbed the wayward satellite by hand during a spacewalk.

The longest, a mission aboard the Endeavour to snare a wayward satellite in May 1992, lasted 8 hours and 29 minutes.

Their closest friends - two men and two women, all survivors of disastrous marriages - orbit the couple like wayward satellites.

Three astronauts ventured into the vacuum of space Wednesday night, reached out with gloved hands and snared a wayward satellite.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has never failed to save a wayward satellite, so pressure on the crew and NASA was mounting.

But a navigation failure in the shuttle's computers forced a delay in the schedule, in particular a jet firing to close the rendevous with the wayward satellite.