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...atomic absorption spectrophotometer, which almost instantly measures the amount of metal in a chemical sample. Lately, it has also branched into laser technology, produces the powerful gas lasers used in tracking missiles. For the U.S. space program, it makes the instruments that align the Saturn and Centaur guidance systems, the infra-red sensors that monitor carbon dioxide inside the Apollo spacecraft, and the cameras that photograph-and sometimes ride on-the rockets launched from Cape Kennedy. Its balloon-borne telescopes analyzed the atmosphere and climate of Mars long before Mariner spacecraft ever got near that planet...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Corporations: To See & Analyze | 9/17/1965 | See Source »

...catastrophic failures out of five firings, an accidental explosion on a test stand, a three-year lag in the development schedule, and a $552 million price tag have all earned NASA's liquid-hydrogen-fueled Centaur rocket such derisive nicknames as "the Hangar Queen" and "the Edsel of the Missile Industry." But as it separated from its Atlas booster and ignited in a burst of pale blue flame high above the Atlantic Ocean last week, Centaur took on its proper dignity. The most powerful rocket of its size in the world, built to fire a one-ton Surveyor spacecraft...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Space: Flight of the Hangar Queen | 8/20/1965 | See Source »

...only did the trouble-plagued Pratt & Whitney hydrogen engines take full charge in flight, but the guidance for the General Dynamics rocket sys tem checked out perfectly. Centaur soared into an orbit that was so exact that had Surveyor carried the proper equipment, it could have made a slight mid-course correction and been on its way to the moon...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Space: Flight of the Hangar Queen | 8/20/1965 | See Source »

Liquid hydrogen is the fuel for two important U.S. rocket engines-Pratt & Whitney's RL-10 and Rocketdyne's J2. The RL-10 powers the second stage of Saturn 1, scheduled for early Apollo flights; two RL-10s combine to form the Centaur stage of the Atlas-Centaur system built to soft-land Surveyor spacecraft on the moon. J-2 forms the second and third stages of the Saturn V designed for Apollo's man-carrying lunar missions. In the near future, violent but versatile liquid hydrogen may become still more familiar as a fuel for supersonic...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Cryogenics: A Wonderful, Terrible Liquid | 7/16/1965 | See Source »

After its big boom in Georgia, the U.S. space program ran afoul of a fizzle in Florida. At Cape Kennedy the three liquid-fuel motors of an Atlas-Centaur rocket ignited on schedule, but the missile that was supposed to toss a dummy Surveyor (soft-landing vehicle) to the moon's orbit, climbed only a few feet before a valve misfunctioned and the rocket fell back on its pad. Thin-walled fuel tanks ruptured, and more than 100 tons of liquid oxygen and kerosene burst into flames. The hydrogen-burning second stage added tons of liquid hydrogen...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Science: Flameout in Florida | 3/12/1965 | See Source »

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