Word: liftoff
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...contrasted sharply with the earlier gloom that settled over the space community. Barely a minute after Skylab's launch atop a surplus Saturn 5 moon rocket, tiny sensors on the arms of the shield alerted flight controllers to serious problems. Apparently unable to withstand the intense vibrations after liftoff, some and possibly all of the thin shielding around Skylab's Orbital Workshop section suddenly ripped free. As it tore away, it apparently caused one of the twin solar wings on the Orbital Workshop to extend prematurely...
Shortly before Apollo 17 was to have been launched, many spectators were startled by a burst of flame that seemed to come prematurely from the base of the rocket. The countdown clocks suddenly stopped only 30 seconds before the scheduled liftoff. To the disappointment of the throng at the cape and the millions more watching over television, Launch Control announced curtly: "We have had a cut-off." Never before during the Apollo program had a countdown been halted so close to blast-off time...
...that another excursion was possible, and the astronauts prepared to take a final spin on the lunar surface. It would take them north toward Smoky Mountain. Then, after stowing their rocks, film and other paraphernalia in the lunar module and positioning the rover's camera to televise the liftoff, Duke and Young were to fire Orion's upper stage engine and head for a reunion with Mattingly, orbiting overhead in Casper. Later, Casper's own powerful engine would be fired to hurl the command ship out of lunar orbit and start the three astronauts on their three...
...NASA and the aerospace industry, the announcement packed all the wallop of a Saturn booster at liftoff. After much backstage deliberation, President Nixon last week ordered the space agency to proceed with its long-planned space shuttle. To be built at a cost of at least $5.5 billion over the next six years, the system will be designed to transport at least a dozen passengers and cargo between orbiting space stations and the earth. The vehicle is to be a hybrid that looks something like a jet fighter, takes off like a rocket and lands like an ordinary plane...
...made U.S. goods more competitive abroad and foreign-made goods more expensive in the U.S., similar setbacks have befallen Belgium, Italy, The Netherlands and parts of Scandinavia. Almost the sole exception is France. In a time of worldwide economic uncertainty, the French have managed to engineer their own economic liftoff...