Word: nasa
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...contrast was stark. Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri V. Romanenko returned happily to earth last week after spending a record-setting 326 days in the space station Mir, a prototype of one from which the Soviets hope to send men to Mars before the end of the century. The same day, NASA announced that part of a newly designed booster rocket had failed during a test firing at a Morton Thiokol plant near Brigham City, Utah, causing an undetermined delay in the faltering effort to resume U.S. manned space missions. At the same plant, five workers were killed when nearly...
...earlier type had eroded on several missions. Morton Thiokol officials said a different type of nozzle joint had been tested successfully in August and could be reinstalled. "We have a parallel design, and we also have some rings of a different configuration on the shelf," said John Thomas, a NASA engineer who began examining the failure. "What we have to do is understand exactly what happened so we can clear this ring or another...
...most striking new feature of the long-planned Galileo mission, first scheduled for 1982, is a looping itinerary that will provide momentum for the spacecraft by utilizing the gravitational fields of Venus and the earth. This "slingshot" routing became necessary when NASA officials decided that the rocket originally scheduled to boost the craft from a shuttle cargo bay could pose a hazard; it was replaced with a safer solid-fuel booster. Another change in plans involved putting extra gold sheeting on the Galileo spacecraft because of the scheduled pass close to the superhot atmosphere of Venus...
That daunting prospect is one reason why practically no one takes seriously NASA's contention that the space station could become operational as early as 1995. Says former Astronaut Donald ("Deke") Slayton, head of a private launch firm based in Houston: "The law of averages says it won't happen." Moreover, many scientists remain opposed to the concept of a manned station, contending that most of the experiments NASA has in mind can be conducted on unmanned missions...
...NASA announces its plans for the Galileo mission to Jupiter in 1989 and awards contracts for the long- awaited space station...