Word: a-o
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...hand, the 122-ft.-tall orbiter represented the agency's successful recovery from the tragic explosion 2 1/2 years ago of Challenger, the last manned U.S. space mission. Discovery was also a test: Could NASA, operating this time around with extraordinary caution and under intense scrutiny, pull off an A-O.K., on-time launch? That question has caused growing frustration in the space agency...
Astronauts Allen and Gardner performed this feat of derring-do not once but twice last week, rescuing another malfunctioning satellite 690 miles away (see following story). All systems A-O.K., shuttle flight 51-A sailed home at week's end to a smooth landing and a hero's welcome at Florida's Kennedy Space Center...
...inimitable NASA phrase, everything seemed to be going A-O.K. As Columbia circled the earth for the third time, with no problem in view, Astronaut Owen Garriott and his West German sidekick Ulf Merbold floated gracefully toward the rear of the main cabin. They reached out and tugged at a hatch that would lead them to the shuttle's cargo bay. To their surprise, despite several minutes of huffing and pulling, the door refused to budge. Not until the muscle power of the entire six-man crew, the largest group ever to fly in space, was applied...
...colleagues, doing a stint in the flight simulator to check whether it accurately reflects what happens in space, and reporting to the space center's director, Christopher Kraft Jr. The preliminary verdict: in spite of problems before and during the flight, Columbia was, in that venerable NASA expression, A-O...
...nose up sharply, cutting air speed to 280 m.p.h., and drop the landing gear. Touching down at 215 m.p.h. (a comparably sized DC-9 lands at 149 m.p.h.). Young can only pray that his tires hold as the ship rolls to a stop. Five months later, if all is A-O.K., Columbia will be back at Cape Canaveral, all fitted out and ready to take off for space again. -By Frederic Golden...