Word: crippen
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...alligators snoozing after a breakfast of fish, when the alien bird swooped down from the sky. Roseate spoonbills and wild pigs scattered as it alighted with a gentle whoosh! on the 15,000-ft. ribbon of concrete beside the Florida marsh. On two previous missions, Captain Robert Crippen had been scheduled to land the space shuttle at Kennedy Space Center, the launch site, and each time bad weather had diverted the ship to Edwards Air Force Base in California's Mojave Desert. But this time, a looming Hurricane Josephine had cooperated by veering northward, making it possible to touch...
...astronauts devised ingenious makeshift solutions to overcome gremlins. With nearly all of its objectives accomplished, NASA insists that the shuttle "is now a fully mature space-plane." That may be an exaggeration, but the 13th shuttle flight, the sixth by Challenger, can boast at least one notable achievement. Although Crippen, Sullivan, Leetsma, Jon McBride, Sally Ride, Paul Scully-Power and Marc Garneau of Canada were crammed into an area the size of a small studio apartment, they made it through eight days without any noticeable clashes or even displays of temper. Marveled Crippen of the largest space crew ever...
...more dramatic. Mission Commander Crippen, 46, a three-flight shuttle veteran, gently juggled Challenger to within 200 ft. of Solar Max. George ("Pinky") Nelson, 33, an astronomer and high school athlete who was once offered a contract by the Minnesota Twins, then donned the $ 10 million manned maneuvering unit (MMU), the Buck Rogers-style jet backpack tested on last February's mission, to retrieve the crippled Max. His untethered ride seemed agonizingly slow. It took him 10 min. to traverse the 200 ft. from the open cargo bay across the reach of black vacuum. The short journey was historic...
...banged against Max without results (TPAD has no manual trigger for an astronaut to operate). Nelson's efforts turned the gentle wobble of Solar Max, whose inoperable attitude controls had been shut down as a precaution by its ground controllers, into a precarious, crazy cartwheel. Radioed a frustrated Crippen: "Is there any way that you think you can do it with your hands...
...array panels, but the movement made Max tumble even faster and more erratically. With the MMU's nitrogen propellant half exhausted and Challenger down to a fifth of its own reserves of forward-thruster fuel-close to the bare minimum needed to rescue an astronaut in free flight-Crippen ordered Nelson to return. Inside Challenger 's cockpit, Mission Specialist Terry Hart, 37, tried three times to snake the remote-controlled mechanical arm past the panels to snatch the satellite, but it remained tantalizingly out of reach. Said Crippen: "We came close that time, but no cigar...