Word: liftoff
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...liftoff yesterday came at 10:10 a.m., ten minutes behind schedule, and eight days after low pressure in fuel cell tanks forced a "scrub" at the T-31 seconds point in the countdown...
...most dreaded penal colony. A short distance away, piranha-infested rivers course through the rain forest. Yet out of this equatorial backwater on the steamy coast of French Guiana last week roared a gleaming, cream-colored three-stage rocket emblazoned with the flags of eleven European nations. The fiery liftoff, heard for miles around, was a noisy, jubilant awakening for an independent space effort in faraway Europe...
Built by a French-dominated consortium of European companies, Ariane is a liquid-fuel rocket reminiscent of the U.S. Atlas/Centaur launch vehicle. In its first test, in 1979, the rocket reached orbit, but the second Ariane burned up shortly after liftoff, in 1980, because of engine failure. Thus Ariane's latest launch attempt -the next-to-last trial before the rocket is scheduled to go into regular commercial service-was regarded as something of a make-or-break proposition, like Columbia's flight last April...
Exactly 16 days after its fiery liftoff, the space shuttle Columbia last week reappeared in the Florida skies. This time it was only a piggyback passenger, riding on a Boeing 747. The coast-to-coast flight required an overnight refueling stop in Oklahoma. As a result, the ship that circled the earth in 90 minutes and plunged back into the atmosphere at 25 times the speed of sound took a full day to complete the final lap of its epic journey...
...Liftoff is scheduled for next Thursday morning. See you at College Park...