Word: brand
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...satellites of the earth. Never before had astronauts or cosmonauts, in dozens of space walks, ventured forth without a lifeline. Only a remarkable jet-powered backpack, which looked like castoff hardware from a science-fiction film, kept the walkers from drifting off into the cosmos. As Shuttle Commander Vance Brand, 52, put it, "They call each other Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers...
...shadow and ended 90 minutes later, about the time it takes the shuttle to make one pass around the earth. Slowing down in front of Challenger's windshield, McCandless asked: "Hey, you going to want the windows washed or anything while I'm out here?" Skipper Brand snapped back with mock military brusqueness: "No, we want you to get out and back before sunset though...
...journey into space. (Of the two MMUs aboard Challenger, one was always kept in readiness as a spare.) Urged McCandless: "Enjoy it. Have a ball." The hot-rodding Stewart, a former helicopter pilot, took that advice. When he throttled up to a radar-timed speed of .7 m.p.h., Brand warned him to slow down...
...other foul-ups ended more satisfactorily. Left untethered in the cargo bay, a foot restraint was accidentally jogged and began floating away in space. "We can go get it," McCandless volunteered. But Commander Brand, exercising caution, immediately replied: "No, no, no, no." Instead, he maneuvered the shuttle toward the fleeing bit of hardware until McCandless could reach out and snare it. The balletic catch brought applause from the Houston controllers. McCandless was pleased too. Improvising on a slogan of an earlier shuttle crew, he joked, "We deliver, but we pick up also...
Although the lost satellite cast a shadow over the mission, Challenger's commander, Vance Brand, 52, a former Marine pilot on his third spaceflight, and his four crewmen, including Copilot Robert ("Hoot") Gibson, 37, a space novice, faced other weighty matters. In many ways Flight 41-B, as the mission is called under a new numbering system fathomable only to NASA bureaucrats, is the most ambitious sortie into space to date. It features a full agenda of experiments, including one intriguing test devised by a high school student to see if zero-g can relieve the agony of arthritic...