Word: liftoff
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Apollo 11 and 10, started its space voyage on a "free return" trajectory toward the moon. In the event of engine failure, such a path would allow the spacecraft to be whipped around the moon by lunar gravity and hurled back safely to the earth. Some 31 hours after liftoff, however, Apollo 12's situation was changed drastically. Conrad fired the 20,500-lb.-thrust service propulsion engine and sent his ship into a "hybrid" trajectory. The new flight path was necessary to set the astronauts down at their landing site on the Ocean of Storms at the right...
Behind them are the flight director and planning and operations officers. "Flight" is the captain of the team, the man who makes the crucial decisions. Head flight for Apollo 11 was Cliff Charlesworth, 37. His green team handled liftoff, translunar insertion and the moon walk, known in space jargon as "Extravehicular Activity," or EVA. Charlesworth admits he liked EVA least of all the mission's activities, "because there just wasn't much I could do." Other flight directors for Apollo 11 were Gene Kranz, 35, who wears a white vest to match his team's color; Milt...
Less than twelve minutes after liftoff, a brief boost from the S-4B third stage placed Apollo into a circular 119-mile orbit at a velocity of 17,427 m.p.h. Over the Pacific for the second time, just 2½ hrs. after launch, the spacecraft was cleared by Houston for "translunar insertion" (TLI). Firing for five minutes, the reliable S-4B engine accelerated the ship to 24,245 m.p.h., fast enough to tear it loose from the earth's gravitational embrace and send it toward the moon. At a point 43,495 miles from the moon, lunar gravity exerted a force...
...East Coast workers either rushed to the office early or stayed home until midmorning to watch the liftoff; across the country, Californians climbed out of bed at dawn to agonize through the countdown...
...down with some moon bug." Berry publicly discouraged Richard Nixon from dining with the astronauts on the eve of their flight, lest the President pass on germs. When the crew members made their final pre-launch public appearance at a press briefing in Houston eleven days before liftoff, they entered the room wearing rubber masks to cover their mouths and noses and sat within a tentlike glass canopy. Both precautions were designed to reduce the risk of infection...