Word: craft
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...embodiment of Yankee ingenuity and derring-do, the pride of the U.S. and the envy of the world. The very mention of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration evoked images of intrepid astronauts walking in space and frolicking on the moon, of sophisticated robot craft swooping past ringed and rocky alien worlds. To millions of people around the globe, the voice of Mission Control was the true Voice of America...
...NASA is in sharp contrast to the almost uninterrupted acclaim heaped on the agency in the years that followed its establishment in 1958. With virtually unlimited funds, sound management and inspired creativity, NASA soon overcame the Soviet Union's head start, sending brilliantly conceived and increasingly sophisticated unmanned craft to every planet but Pluto and landing men on the moon...
...thus more easily elicit the support of Congress ("No bucks without Buck Rogers," quip congressional aides), the agency opted for the Space Transportation System, the shuttle program. Lobbying the White House, the Defense Department and Congress intensively, NASA portrayed the shuttle as all things to all people. The winged craft would be reusable and thus economical, a safe, reliable space truck with many different roles. In as many as 60 flights a year, it would loft or capture satellites and patrol the skies for the military. Furthermore, NASA assured the White House, it could lead to the direct employment...
...craft that had sadly fallen into neglect. But spurred by hits like The Simpsons and The Little Mermaid, animation on both the big and small screen is booming once again...
Animation remains a curiously old-fashioned, labor-intensive craft. A typical feature-length film requires 100,000 frames, or cels, each of which has to be painted by hand. Even with simpler TV animation, a half-hour cartoon usually requires 16 to 18 weeks of production, compared with three or four weeks for a live-action show. To save money, much of the work is shipped overseas, usually to the Far East. Artists there do most of the frame-by-frame drawings, working from character models and storyboards prepared in the U.S. Computer animation is also being used to provide...