Word: astronaut
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Creativity Limitation. Such space-speak metaphors as "umbilical" (the cord connecting a space-walking astronaut to his craft) and "milk stool" (the arrangement of a missile's three rocket engines) are vital additions to the language, says McNeill. He is equally impressed by such metonyms as "eyeballs in" and "eyeballs out" (describing extreme conditions of acceleration and deceleration, respectively), and he approves of neologisms such as "rockoon" (a rocket launched from a balloon). Unfortunately, metaphors, metonyms and neologisms-and the creativity required to invent them-are limited. They constitute only about one-eighth of the entries in official NASA...
Even the engineering mind has begun to boggle at the profusion of space-speak-which explains the reduction of some complex nominal compounds to straightforward acronyms. "Augmented target docking adapter" has become ATDA, "astronaut maneuvering unit" is known as AMU, and the "electronic ground automatic destruct sequencer" -used to blow up missiles that have gone astray-is known simply as EGADS...
...decision is often a synthesis of the opinions of many herolings. Where there are too many heroes, there may be none in the end, for the essence of heroism is singularity. Lindbergh is perhaps the greatest of all American heroes, a machine-borne Icarus who did not fall. The astronauts are his heirs and yet they are already submerged in team heroism. First there was Alan Shepard, who was succeeded by the engaging John Glenn, and then Edward White was the first American to walk in space, and then ... By now few people can remember all the names...
Born. To Lieut. Colonel James Mc-Divitt, 37, command pilot of Gemini 4's June 1965 mission, and Patricia Mc-Divitt, 37: their fourth child, a girl, the first baby conceived by a U.S. astronaut after space flight; in Houston...
They have been spurred by publicity about the Government's campaigns to help them find work. Under federal sponsorship, such personalities as Labor Secretary Willard Wirtz, Astronaut Frank Borman and Mickey Mantle are making televised appeals to businessmen to hire young people. Disturbed that few companies are eager to hire unseasoned or draft-eligible workers, the Government has ordered federal agencies to take on one temporary employee this summer for every hundred regulars on the roll. The program is paying off. Of the 1,000,000 teen-agers searching for summer work, at least two-thirds should find...