Word: missions
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Prague was assaulted first from the air, as giant Tupolev transports, covered by MIG jet fighters, began landing every minute at Ruzyne airport. The first passengers were the elite paramilitary units of the KBG, the Soviet secret police, whose mission was to secure the capital's airfields, railroad stations, cable offices and broadcast centers. It was perhaps at Ruzyne that the first sign of Czechoslovakia's remarkable campaign of passive resistance appeared. The airport officials refused to supply the Soviet planes with fuel. At nearby Pardubice airport, the Russians had to set up their own control tower after Czechoslovak...
...youths no older than 18?looked nervous and stared blankly into the distance to avoid further embarrassment. A few told crowds in the street that they were in Czechoslovakia to protect the people from "counterrevolution" or the "re actionaries" in West Germany. But many had little notion of their mission and were apologetic. "We are only following orders," a youthful paratrooper said to an irate questioner in Prague. "We have our orders. Surely you, too, were once a soldier and know what it means. The political decisions are not our affair...
...appeal. By November 5, say hopeful Nixon thinkers, Wallace's strength will have dwindled from the 16% the polls currently give him (in a three-way race with Nixon and Hubert Humphrey) to no-more than 4% to 5%, the "hardcore" racists. "The rest," says one man at Mission Bay, "are people who are just upset at things in general and want a change. We think we can work on that part." Law and order, Wallace's theme, will be Nixon's No. 1 topic, and every effort will be made to undercut the Alabamian...
Because planetary exploration "is no longer a primitive and risky art," the scientists say, the accepted practice of launching two spacecraft to accomplish the same mission, and the construction of a third duplicate craft as a "backup," in the event of twin failure, is largely unnecessary. They recommend, however, that NASA proceed with the only planetary flight now funded and scheduled-a photographic flyby of Mars in 1969 by two Mariner spacecraft. The flights would not be redundant, the report notes, because each Mariner is scheduled to photograph a different area of the Martian surface...
These flights, the report stresses, should provide vast new knowledge about the solar system, the origin and evolution of life, and the processes that govern the earth's interior, surface and atmosphere. But the scientists warn that planning must begin years ahead of any actual mission. Thus, they conclude, "decisions arrived at this year and next will go far in determining the future character and scope of planetary programs...