Word: liftoff
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...while a vertical guide rail in the center of the pathway takes the place of its spinning rotor. When enough electrical power is fed into the system, the train begins to move forward. Like an airplane, the train needs old-fashioned wheels for low-speed travel until it reaches "liftoff" at about 50 m.p.h...
Painful Choice. Another bug-this one viral-made the hours before liftoff almost as tense as the launch itself. The countdown for the mission was about to begin when Astronaut Charles Duke, of the Apollo 13 back-up crew, complained of chills, fever and a rash. Doctors diagnosed his illness as rubella, or German measles. Duke had apparently caught the disease from the children of friends. Dismayed NASA officials immediately ordered blood tests of Apollo 13's first-line crew members, who had come in contact with Duke during several preflight conferences. Both Astronauts Jim Lovell and Fred Haise...
...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...
...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...