Word: caspers
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...splashdown watchers Apollo 16's return to earth last week was a spectacle of rare beauty. The slow blossoming of the spacecraft's three orange and white parachutes against the bright, azure sky seemed designed for maximum drama. Then, in a final demonstration of precision, the spacecraft Casper hit the water only one mile off the bow of the recovery carrier Ti-tonderoga. Once out of its natural element, Casper immediately capsized; it bobbed nose down in the choppy South Pacific for five minutes until the astronauts-strapped in upside-down and rapidly becoming queasy-righted it with...
...mysterious flickering of a computer warning light, the mid-flight peeling of protective paint off the lunar module and the recalcitrant zipper on Young's space suit. Then, after the Apollo had gone into orbit around the moon and Orion, with Duke and Young aboard, had separated from Casper, came real cause for alarm...
...spacecraft emerged from behind the moon at the beginning of their 13th lunar revolution, Mattingly reported some chilling news: the backup circuit on a steering motor controlling Casper's bell-shaped engine nozzle during firings was swiveling the nozzle erratically back and forth-and Mattingly could do nothing about it. The astronauts were in no immediate danger, but under mission rules the command module's primary and secondary guidance systems must both be operational before a lunar landing can be attempted. The reason: if the command ship's engine cannot be controlled, the rocket power...
...addition, at a number of their stops, the astronauts took careful measurements to augment data about the moon's magnetic field, which analysis of moon rocks shows was once surprisingly strong; the strong field, in turn, suggests that the core of the moon was once molten. Aboard Casper, high above the moon's surface, Command Ship Pilot Mattingly made his own scientific contributions. Among other valuable exercises, he shot stereo pictures of the moon's surface, including the far side which is hidden from earth, and measured the solar wind, the constant streams of particles that flow...
...toward Smoky Mountain. Then, after stowing their rocks, film and other paraphernalia in the lunar module and positioning the rover's camera to televise the liftoff, Duke and Young were to fire Orion's upper stage engine and head for a reunion with Mattingly, orbiting overhead in Casper. Later, Casper's own powerful engine would be fired to hurl the command ship out of lunar orbit and start the three astronauts on their three-day journey home...