ClearSpace, a Swiss space company, has secured clearance from the European Space Agency after the company’s first program review of its efforts to clear junk from Earth orbit by using a giant, four-armed robotic satellite to capture debris.
The year was 2002 and popular boyband NSYNC was on its last tour for the album Celebrity before going on an indefinite, heartbreaking hiatus. Meanwhile, the band’s most forgettable member Lance Bass was set to embark on a much more memorable journey to space—a journey that never happened.