Word: balloonful
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When the satellite finally reaches space it may be followed on its orbit by a frail, light, short-lived companion. Developed by William J. O'Sullivan Jr. (following a long-discussed idea), the inflated sub-satellite is a balloon of Mylar plastic .0025 in. thick covered with an aluminum film .0006 in. thick. When released from the third-stage rocket, it will weigh 10½ oz. complete and look like a wad of aluminum foil. A small capsule of compressed dry nitrogen will expand the plastic to a sphere 20 in. in diameter, which will follow at first...
Taken back aboard ship, Oyama was dunked again, but an accident made him shoot to the surface like a balloon. A diver on a passing boat recommended taking Oyama ashore and stretching him out, head down, on a steep slope. This too was done. In the next 60 hours Oyama was alternately parboiled and marinated in the brine of Nagasaki...
Everything so far had gone well. Ross and Lewis dropped the balloon intentionally to 75,000 ft. and started to make the observations that were the purpose of the flight. Then the trouble started...
...gondola began to spin crazily, 14 miles above the earth, and the great gasbag would not stop descending. Apparently a malfunctioning valve on the balloon had begun to release helium. The men radioed that the balloon was out of control. They dumped all the ballast and strapped themselves to the gondola's seats. "We are calm, cool and collected," they radioed. "We think we'll stay with the balloon as long...
...reduce the dangerous speed of descent, they jettisoned batteries, oxygen apparatus, everything in the gondola that could be torn loose. They were drifting over the sandhill cattle country of northwest Nebraska, and little by little the descent of the balloon decreased to a safer rate. As the gondola approached the ground, the crew detached the gasbag, which soared off on the wind. The gondola dropped the few remaining feet, its fall cushioned by a plastic shock absorber, and the two men from Mars stepped out. Almost at once a light airplane piloted by Don Higgins of Ainsworth, Neb. landed beside...