Word: ascent
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...quite. After Shepard and Mitchell made the usual in-flight inspection of the lunar lander, an unexpected voltage drop was discovered in one of the two batteries of Antares' ascent stage, which would take the astronauts off the moon. The reading was only three-tenths of a volt lower than normal; yet mission controllers felt that it might be a sign of more serious trouble-a leakage in the LM's critical electrical circuitry, for example. That too could have barred a moon landing. Happily, a subsequent check by Mitchell, who holds a doctorate in astronautics from M.I.T...
Later Mitchell will deploy a more powerful explosive device: a mortar containing four rocket grenades that will be fired after Apollo 14 returns home. Together with the shock waves that will be generated in the moon when Antares' abandoned ascent stage and Apollo 14's discarded S-4B rocket hit the lunar surface, tremors from the explosives should give seismologists many more clues to the structure and composition of the moon...
...Davidson leads a more settled life now. He makes films for his own Anchorage-based company, Alaska Wildlife Productions, and has published a book, Minus 148, about the first winter ascent of North America's highest peak, Mt. McKinley. (The title refers to the temperature Art and two other members of the expedition withstood when they were forced to wait out a windstorm for several days in an ice-cave near the summit. One member of the expedition died in a crevasse during the ascent; Art was lucky enough to return to Anchorage with the loss of only...
...master the most difficult path up the 3,000-ft. cliff in their first climb together. Harding, 46, and Caldwell, 27, hauled 300 pounds of equipment. They averaged only 150 ft. each day, screwing expansion bolts into the wall as they inched their way upward. The ascent-originally scheduled to take twelve days-stretched into the longest continuous effort in the history of rock climbing in Yosemite...
...slept roped to the side of the mountain, inside a Harding-designed hammock-tent that was suspended from several pitons. They usually climbed from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m., and during the entire ordeal found only three ledges wide enough to stand on. There were two falls during the ascent: Harding cut his hands and legs after a piton gave way; Caldwell took a similar spill, "slithering down like a ride in an amusement park." Both men were in good condition...