Word: mooned
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...aboard the Hornet to greet the astronauts, hailed their achievement with buoyant enthusiasm. At the same time, over 4,000 miles away in Houston's Mission Control, nerve center of the flight, John F. Kennedy's 1961 pledge that the U.S. would land a man on the moon "before this decade is out" flashed on a display board. Near by, a smaller screen carried Apollo 11 's Eagle emblem along with the immensely proud statement: "Task accomplished . . . July...
...accomplished without grave risks-from the initial launching atop a rocket brimful of explosive propellants, to the final splashdown in rolling seas. Perhaps most perilous of all were the maneuvers near and on the moon-if only because they had never before been attempted. As the mission reached its climactic moments and Eagle, the lunar module, was curving down to within a few miles of the moon, Eagle's computer reported: "Program alarm." Eagle's on-board computer was being asked to make too many calculations in the frenetic moments before touchdown. It had begun to balk...
...long after Eagle's successful touchdown, the Soviet space vehicle Luna 15 met with a less fortunate fate. The unmanned ship dropped from her lunar orbit and headed for the moon's surface. Telemetered data picked up by Western observatories indicated that Luna had hit too hard to survive. To most space experts, the failure was one more proof that the Russians are months if not years behind the U.S. in space technology...
...Armstrong and Aldrin, the next nerve-racking maneuver was lift-off from the moon's surface. The squat, 172-Ib. ascent engine had been test-fired more than 3,000 times, but this was no test. Houston radioed: "You're cleared for takeoff." Replied Aldrin: "Roger, understand. We're No. 1 on the runway." Seconds later, tension dissolved; Eagle was airborne, headed into a lunar orbit. Within four hours, the module had rendezvoused and docked with Columbia on the far side of the moon. Then Armstrong and Aldrin left the LM so quickly that ground controllers, caught...
Although scientists are fairly certain that the moon supports no life, NASA has taken care to guard against lunar infection. During the homeward voyage, Columbia's environmental-control system circulated the air within the capsule more than 100 times, passing it through special filters. On earth, the precautions were equally stringent. Besides the astronauts, the only persons allowed in the Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF) were a doctor and an engineer. During the next three days, about all that relieved the tedium was a video-tape replay of the moon walk. The most interested viewer was Collins...