Word: nasa
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Alan Shepard, 59, the first American in space, emerged as a shrewd entrepreneur after leaving NASA in 1974. Based in Houston, he has developed extensive real estate projects and is a wholesale distributor for Coors beer in southern Texas. Remembered for hitting a golf ball on the moon as commander of Apollo 14 in 1971, he relishes playing in celebrity golf tournaments and, like others of the Mercury group, is a grandfather several times over...
Donald ("Deke") Slayton, 59, a no-nonsense loyalist to the space program, remained with NASA until 1982, when he became president of Houston's Space Services Inc., the first American privately financed space enterprise. Divorced this year, he revels in flying his formula midget racing plane in competitions, but otherwise keeps a low profile. His astronaut celebrity, he says, was something to be tolerated rather than enjoyed: "I just learned to cope with...
...then flash ahead a few scenes. It is the day of a launch, and Glenn is on the phone with his wife, a painful stutterer. Vice President Lyndon Johnson is fuming in his limousine outside the Glenn house, a NASA official is badgering Glenn, but the astronaut stands firm. "Annie, listen to me. I will back you all the way, one hundred percent," says Glenn. "I don't want Johnson or any of the rest of them to put so much as one toe inside our house." Cut to a weepy but relieved Annie Glenn, then cut back...
...glare of blue xenon searchlights, Navy Captain Richard Truly, the mission commander, flawlessly guided the orbiter, nose up, to its first nighttime landing. Challenger's arrival at Edwards Air Force Base last week, at 12:40 a.m. California time, ended a six-day flight that drew raves from NASA officials. Crowed the shuttle's boss, Lieut. General James Abrahamson: "That was a fabulous mission. We think it was the cleanest mission...
...NASA listed only 27 minor hitches or anomalies during the eighth mission of its Space Transportation System. Among them was a leaky valve in the shuttle's million-dollar space toilet, a source of trouble on four previous flights. In addition, solar panels on India's Insat-1B, a $45 million communications satellite released by Challenger, failed to open all the way, threatening to render the satellite as useless as Insat-1A, launched last year, which also developed panel problems. Still, said Mission Evaluation Manager Joseph E. Mechelay, "none of these things should affect STS-9." That flight...