Word: blastoff
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...province of Udon Thani, the rocket men like nothing better than a big bang, and some of the kingdom's top rocketmakers stage secret gatherings near Si Sutoh Temple at Kam Chanode three or four times a year, usually on important Buddhist festivals. Secret, that is, until the first blastoff, which can be heard for miles around. Kilograms of home-cooked explosive are packed into PVC tubes strapped to bamboo poles, fuses are connected to a car battery to provide an ignition spark, and then?whoosh!?the rockets shoot up into the stratosphere. It's illegal, and very, very dangerous...
...China is intent on becoming the third country to send a man into orbit-behind the U.S. and the former Soviet Union-but its galactic ambitions have been dogged by troubles. In the mid-'90s a Long March 2E rocket exploded after blastoff, killing a family of six on the ground. Still, the country has persevered. With last week's successful launch, China's Space Association says it could send up an astronaut (pre-sumably with an actual heartbeat) as early as next year. The ultimate goal is a lunar landing. Only one problem: it's a long...
...understand what John Glenn means when he says -- repeatedly -- that there are more important things to pay attention to on the upcoming shuttle mission than a lowly payload specialist such as himself. For example, Glenn is going to have some skittish houseguests to take care of after Thursday's blastoff: three casefuls of large, brown, southern-style cockroaches. The nose-wrinkling experiment belongs to a Maryland high school, who are paying the bugs' round-trip ticket to discover whether zero gravity throws off cockroach reproductive skills...
Although he was not named outstanding swimmer of the meet, Berkoff was clearly the center of the cable coverage, with most of the focus on his "Berkoff Blastoff" backstroke start and the way he has changed the mechanics of that stroke...
While underwater after the start, Berkoff flipped on to his back and launched into his famous "Berkoff Blastoff," with which he propelled himself to the first wall. At that point, he turned back over, made his turn and finished the race on his stomach...