Word: grounded
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...also the first NASA spacecraft to have a military role. Though the Pentagon is paying about a sixth of the shuttle's cost, or $1.5 billion, it is not saying much about its plans. But these are not too hard to figure out. To control the military "high ground" of the future, the shuttle will not only launch satellites but track down others, nudge up to them and disable them if they present a threat. All of which may explain why the Soviets, who apparently have their own capacity to hunt down and kill satellites, have complained bitterly about...
...glides to a landing at either the Kennedy Space Center or Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. A more serious difficulty: ironing the bugs out of the shuttle's main rocket engine, which has failed to perform up to specifications and blew up at least once during ground testing. NASA Administrator Robert Frosch has told Congress that this obstacle should soon be overcome. If so, the shuttle may fly by next July...
Today's comsats demonstrate how an object can remain poised over a fixed spot on the equator by matching its speed to the turning earth, 22,320 miles below. Now imagine a cable, linking the satellite to the ground. Payloads could be hoisted up it by purely mechanical means, reaching orbit without any use of rocket power. The cost of operations could be reduced to a tiny fraction of today's values...
...veteran diplomat, William G. Bowdler, to San José with a proposal: Somoza would resign and be replaced by an interim government composed mostly of moderates but including some Sandinistas as well as pro-Somoza conservatives. That plan was rejected by the rebel leaders, partly on the ground that moderate political groups already support the junta and partly because they resented Washington's interference in what they viewed as strictly a Nicaraguan matter...
...envoy had spent less than 48 hours in the turbulent Middle East. Aware of the pitfalls that face even the most seasoned diplomats, Strauss told reporters aboard his Air Force jet: "I'm used to conducting business in Washington where I know every inch of the ground. Now I'm going into the Middle East where the sensitivities are tenfold...