Word: earthly
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...reason that Pioneer lacked those few more miles of speed is still being debated by the rocket experts. The official explanation, that its first stage climbed too steeply and so did not benefit fully from the speed of the earth's rotation, is not accepted by all. Another possibility is that some of the liquid fuel in the second-stage tanks failed to burn. A third theory is that the solid fuel in the third-stage rocket became chilled before firing and therefore did not give the expected amount of energy...
...Pioneer faltered and began to fall back, scientists at tracking stations tried to fire the Stage Four rocket in the hope it would send the probe into an orbit around the earth. The rocket did not fire. The official theory is that the interior temperature of the Pioneer fell so low (35°F.) that its battery lost power and could not work the firing system. Some experts have suggested a simpler cause: a broken electrical connection...
Full explanation of the Pioneer's two-day venture into space must await careful analysis of the data on its flight. Overeager public-relations officers pushed into print a statement that Pioneer had shown that the radiation belt around the earth falls off sharply from 4 roentgens per hour at 5,000 miles to 2 roentgens per hour at 17,000 miles, and that this meant that future space wayfarers should not have much to fear from radiation. But the project's scientists promptly warned that such apparent discoveries may prove to be the result of instrument failure...
...accomplishment of the Pioneer could be told at once. While it was high in space, the operators on its tracking stations gaily used it as a radio relay, e.g., England talked to Hawaii on the other side of the earth, the waves climbing up to the Pioneer and down again. This dramatized the often discussed possibility of using satellites as relay points for the earth's communications...
Glowing Wings. But soaring 100 miles above the earth is only a first step. Greater peril comes when the pilot starts down through the atmosphere to land. To offset the ferocious heat generated by the air's friction, the X-15's skin is made of Inconel X, a heat-resisting alloy that keeps its shape at a brightly glowing 1,350° F., when aluminum and ordinary steel have long since softened. Liquid nitrogen, which will not support combustion, is used as a coolant for both pilot and equipment, and is also vaporized to maintain pressure...