Word: aloftness
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...more accurate to call it wind-swimming." Adds Robby Naish of Hawaii, who last year won a world championship: "The reason I became such a good windsurfer is that I liked falling in the water." A certain amount of upper-body strength is needed to hold the sail aloft, but more experienced wind-surfers are less dependent on muscle power, having learned to use their bodies for leverage. With practice one can reach speeds of 30 m.p.h. Speeds vary according to the weight of the rider: heavier sailors fare better in strong winds, lighter ones in soft breezes...
Half a world away, the American space scientists who had sent Skylab aloft six years ago were calling themselves lucky, too. Although the 77.5-ton craft presumably broke into some 500 pieces, including two weighing about two tons each, there were no reports of anyone's being hurt. That was mainly because Skylab, pretty much on its own, had re-entered the earth's atmosphere while on an orbit that carried the craft over Canada, Maine, and the Atlantic and Indian oceans, posing minimal danger to the world's most populated areas. Despite months of meticulous planning...
...NORAD'S space-tracking stations, using infra-red detection devices as well as radar, is so discerning that it can track an object even smaller than a basketball at a range of 20,000 miles. Even an astronaut's glove is being tracked. Beyond Skylab, the heaviest object aloft is now Salyut 6, the Soviets' manned spacecraft. Every month about 40 man-made objects re-enter the atmosphere, but only a fourth survive to strike the earth. There has never been a reported injury, although the fall of Cosmos 954 over northern Canada in January 1978 led to fears...
...program of manned space exploration, NASA also made ingenious use of castoff Apollo hardware to create Skylab. Despite a troubled beginning and now its embarrassing demise, the giant space station represented another great leap. In 1973, three teams of astronauts occupied the station in rapid succession, one remaining aloft for 84 days. That record was not beaten by the Russians until 1978. More important, it proved to all doubters-and there were many-that humans could live and work together in space for long periods, conquering both isolation and the physical effects of weightlessness, such as weakening of the muscles...
...that he would bless any crosses that the young congregation had brought. Suddenly thousands of crucifixes of all shapes and sizes were thrust out of the crowd and waved aloft. Said the Pontiff: "I hope you will be faithful to this sign always...