Word: launch
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...after Christine Schweiger's murder, more than a dozen local groups held a previously scheduled press conference to launch a petition drive to ban almost all handguns in the city. "Up until the past couple of months we've been doing what the N.R.A. wanted, and look where it's got us," says Dan Ullrich, spokesman for the Campaign for a Better Milwaukee. "Halfway measures haven't worked in other cities." The group hopes to collect the necessary . 20,300 signatures by mid-January, forcing the city council either to pass the ban or place it on the ballot...
...Your Man, the first interactive movie, last year had audiences pushing armrest buttons to guide the story. Dizzying, perhaps, but successful enough to launch another: Run for Your Life, about Manhattan bike messengers, now in production...
When the shuttle Endeavour blasted into space last Thursday morning, its near flawless lift-off lighting up Florida's predawn skies and dazzling onlookers in and around the Kennedy Space Center, NASA officials felt a mix of relief and tense anticipation. Though the launch was delayed a day by bad weather, the countdown was free of the technical glitches that had grounded shuttles so many times before. But the really hard part was yet to come: a week of dangerous and delicate maneuvers performed more than 300 miles up in space. The challenge facing Endeavour's seven-member crew...
...without this $629 million repair mission, the telescope would probably break down soon anyway. Its blurred vision, caused by an improperly ground primary mirror that NASA failed to test thoroughly before launch, is the least of the Hubble trouble. The telescope's solar panels wobble badly when they're heated by the sun; if they snapped off, the craft would be virtually powerless. It is one gyroscope away from being rudderless. And its electronics have been acting up more than they should...
Whether or not the repairs work -- and that won't be fully known for several weeks -- it is becoming clear that big, risky, expensive projects like the Hubble have become too much for one country to handle. Even as Endeavour was being readied for launch, the Clinton Administration announced a major shift in plans for an orbiting space station, a project complex enough to make the Hubble mission's space walks seem like cakewalks. Formalizing a proposal first floated last spring, the White House confirmed that the space station will be a multinational venture, with a starring role reserved...