Word: comets
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...some 14 man-years in space, against less than five for U.S. astronauts. The knowledge of Soviet doctors and researchers about the medical and psychological consequences of long-term space habitation far outstrips that of their American counterparts. And with the twin Vega space probes, which photographed Halley's comet in 1986, Soviet scientists consolidated their reputation for gathering impressive scientific data from space...
Sagdeyev was already embarked on another project, one that could have ended his career. Called Vega, the mission was designed to approach and study Halley's comet. Sagdeyev chose to build Vega around the proven, off-the-shelf technology of the Venera probes. But he wanted the scientific instruments to be custom designed, even though the expertise was not available within the U.S.S.R. So he recruited scientists from nine countries, including the U.S., to join the project. That was unheard-of in security-conscious Soviet space circles. Recalls Sagdeyev: "Sometimes my opponents, in order to take over, were almost ready...
...gamble paid off spectacularly. On March 4, 1986, having swung by Venus to drop off scientific probes, Vega 1 trained its camera on the comet, then less than 9 million miles away, and relayed high-quality pictures to earth. Two days later, it came within 5,500 miles of the comet's heart. Although pelted by dust, Vega 1 revealed for the first time the dimensions and dynamics of the ten-mile-long nucleus...
...goal of my father to live longenough to see [Halley's] comet," Stephen Livernashsaid of his father, who was born in a year thecomet appeared. "He died 10 days past his 77thbirthday...
...kite-flying, and gap-teethed kids gobbling psychedelic spools of never-eat-anything-bigger-than-yer-head cotton candy, my heart was going pitter-pat. It really was. I, err, looked forward to this thing, this piece of space-detritus with more zeros at the end of its comet-tail budget than the rounded-off totality of the Harvard endowment...