Word: cometted
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While aloft in the Skylab station-in orbit since May 14-the astronauts will perform a complex series of tasks, including observation of the comet Kohoutek. The three men, who if all goes well are not due to return until February 1974, will be making the last U.S. manned space journey until the joint Russian-American flight, scheduled for July...
...Pogue and Edward Gibson, a physicist, have been assigned a long list of new experiments. These range from opening carbonated beverages (to see if they bubble in zero G), to breeding gypsy moths (in hopes of mass producing sterile offspring to reduce the pest population on earth), to observing Comet Kohoutek, which will make its closest approach to the sun during the Skylab mission. For their stay in space, which may be extended to 80 days, the men will carry along some 200 Ibs. of extra food: beverages, catsup and several hundred little high-nutrition food bars (flavors: chocolate, vanilla...
Kohoutek probably originated far beyond the outermost planet, where billions of comets are believed to orbit the sun. They were apparently born out of the same cloud of interstellar dust and gas that created the sun and the planets some 4.6 billion years ago, and have remained largely unchanged since. Occasionally, the tug of a nearby star pulls a comet into a far more elongated orbit, bringing it closer to the sun and making it visible from earth. Thus, as Kohoutek approaches, astronomers will have a rare opportunity to learn more about the primordial stuff out of which the solar...
...space agency will fly planes equipped with infra-red telescopes-both before and after the comet makes its pass around the sun (see diagram). A special comet observatory is being built on South Baldy Mountain, near Socorro, N. Mex. NASA will also launch several rockets carrying instruments to observe the comet from above the earth's obscuring atmosphere. Mariner 10, an unmanned spacecraft scheduled to be launched on Nov. 3 for a flyby of Venus and Mercury, will transmit a TV picture of Kohoutek. Pioneer 8, another satellite already in orbit around the sun, should be in position...
...well be made by Skylab 3, which is still scheduled for launch on Nov. 10 despite problems last week in fueling the first-stage booster. The flight may be lengthened from its original 56 days to as many as 85 days. That will let the astronauts view the comet during the time when it is close by and most influenced by solar radiation: from Dec. 28, when Kohoutek emerges from behind the sun, until mid-January, when it sweeps to within 75 million miles of the earth...