Word: earthly
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Veteran Test Pilot Robert M. Stanley of the Stanley Aviation Corp. (makers of airplane subassemblies) tackled the easy end of the problem: how to get the crew down to earth alive if their vehicle misbehaves on launching or while it is still in the atmosphere. The men will be in the nose of the ship, perched above a vast amount of explosive, corrosive, poisonous fuel. If the first-stage engines misfire, the crew will have to be shot away from the ship "with extreme promptness and at high velocity to a considerable distance." This means that the cabin must...
...altitudes higher than 20 miles, no ordinary escape capsule is likely to survive the heat and shock of return to the lower atmosphere. Besides a parachute, it should have wings of a sort, plus rocket propulsion so that the crew can choose a reasonably favorable part of the earth to land on. Except for trying to hit Kansas instead of Antarctica, the crew should be able to leave everything else to automatic devicing. "About all that is expected of them." said Stanley, "is that they return to earth alive and express with eloquence their reactions to space flight...
...climbed above the atmosphere and is in orbit or on an interplanetary course, mishaps are still possible. Krafft A. Ehricke of Con-vairs Astronautics Division suggested that spaceships should be provided with "secondary vehicles"-space lifeboats that could pull away from the main ship and either return to earth or call for a rescue party...
...getting up a grievance. Which is about the worst mistake anyone can make, especially if he has one. Get rid of that sense of justice, or you'll feel sorry for yourself, and then you'll soon be dead ... Go love without the help of anything on earth; and that's real horse meat." "Please don't talk," said the nun, "you're very seriously ill." "Not so seriously as you're well. How don't you enjoy life, mother. I should laugh all round my neck at this minute if my shirt...
...lost and love-shorn ladies (Lillian Roth's I'll Cry Tomorrow, Diana Barrymore's Too Much, Too Soon) have made him a leading sob brother. He achieves a confidential tone that rarely confides, a vulgarity that is everywhere in the air but never down-to-earth, and a range of emotional responses as they might be felt by paper dolls...