Word: centaure
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...Atlas-Centaur rockets have been launching U.S. satellites into orbit for the past 25 years, but last week the sturdy workhorse suffered a rare failure. Less than a minute after lift-off from Pad 36B at Cape Canaveral in threatening weather, a $78 million, 137-ft. rocket disappeared into rain- swollen thunderheads and went out of control. A range safety officer hit the destruct button, and the rocket exploded along with its payload, an $83 million communications satellite. For NASA, struggling to recover from the loss of the Challenger shuttle 14 months ago, the aborted flight broke a string...
...Failure," said Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, 42, last week, "is part of any mission of this magnitude." Gandhi was comforting India's space scientists after the country's newest rocket ended its maiden flight in a watery crash, a fate that also befell an American Atlas-Centaur rocket later in the week. But Gandhi could easily have been speaking of even more unhappy news that reached him the same day. In two of three state elections, his Congress (I) Party had suffered major setbacks at the hands of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the strongest of the country...
...their arguments, the sages of Foggy Bottom created a bogeyman fierce enough to frighten America into a war in Viet Nam that the Wise Men came to believe was unnecessary. Acheson was especially acerbic about the turn of events in Southeast Asia. His impression of Lyndon Johnson: "A real centaur -- part man, part horse's ass." Astute political history has rarely been this engaging and engrossing...
...redesign problems will prolong the severe limitations on America's ability to place critical spy satellites into orbit. But a senior Air Force space surveillance officer insisted, "We're not blind up there, not by a long shot." The U.S., he explained reassuringly, has Atlas-Centaur and various versions of Titan rockets "tucked away somewhere" that could be used if the need becomes acute. Said he: "We're O.K." That was the only upbeat note of the week on America's continuing space troubles...
...expects to have the space program restored to at least minimal launch capacity this summer: NASA hopes to use an Atlas-Centaur rocket combination later this month to lift a Navy fleet communications satellite, although the similarity of the electronics in the Atlas engine to those in the failed Delta remains a concern. At the earliest, Delta and Titan could be back in the air in six months. On NASA's part, the agency's newly appointed administrator, James Fletcher, has said he expects to correct the flaws in the shuttle and resume flights by July...