In 2007 a spacecraft was launched with a special tether experiment named 'YES2' - this was planned to deploy a 30km tether and swing it like a pendulum to return a payload to Earth without using rockets. It holds the record for the longest object ever deployed in space, but, we don't know what happened to the return capsule. Source:
World’s Largest Slingshot Threw A Spacecraft To Earth!
Source: Scott Manley
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