Word: blastoff
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...nose cone of a three-stage rocket, a man lies on his back with his knees drawn up, waiting for the explosion that -will thrust him into space. Blastoff. The roar swallows him; intense vibration courses through his shackled, layer-enveloped body. He is hurtling into the inky empyrean where the sun's rays give no light, where there is no such thing as height, where there is no up and no down -where, if he drops his guard for an instant, the irresistible forces of the cosmos will destroy...
...heavy a warhead per pound of fuel. Critics of solid fuel argue that it requires a canister that can withstand great pressures, that solid fuel blasts off with a jolt that is rough on the missile's complex guidance systems; the Navy insists that it can control the blastoff, but it has not yet tested its technique on the missile. Another key problem: how to shut off the solid-charge propulsion at the precise point needed to drop the missile on target (in lox missiles this is accomplished by turning off a valve). The Navy says it has solved...
This will be the real and immediate meaning of the fateful X-day that will occur at the Air Force Missile Test Center in Florida a few weeks hence when Ben Schriever's first Model-T ICBM is lifted vertically for its first test blastoff. And while this will be a great moment in military history, what will 1987 think of it? Or 1997? The missile stands just about where the airplane stood after World War I-when military planes had to compete for the taxpayer dollar with the cavalry horse. How primitive will tomorrow...
First, before he takes one of his rides, he gets a thorough physical examination, including electrocardiogram and X rays. Then, well before blastoff, he begins his preparations for the run. The Fiberglas shell of his helmet is lowered over his head and its cloth neck-shirt zipped shut. Then he wriggles into a blue wool flight suit, puts on thin leather flying gloves and climbs into his seat...
...blasting hard enough to cancel the speed of falling through the moon's gravitational field. As it nears the surface, it will extend three spring-cushioned legs on which (if all goes well) it will come to rest in a vertical position, undamaged and ready for the earthbound blastoff. This delicate maneuver requires a level landing site; if the spaceship were to hit the lunar equivalent of the Grand Canyon, it would have small chance of seeing the earth again...