Word: nasa
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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When an oscillator aboard the $50 million NOAA-8 weather satellite turned balky last June, the craft began tumbling out of control in its polar orbit. Without power, its systems shut down. All seemed lost, but a determined band of controllers from NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), NASA and RCA refused to give up. Over the next ten months and on hundreds of occasions, they beamed radio signals at the errant craft, trying to revive...
...chairman of the Senate subcommittee that oversees NASA's budget, Jake Garn once joked that if he did not get to fly on the space shuttle, he would not appropriate "another cent" to the agency. When NASA obligingly ticketed him for a trip, critics accused Garn of using his political clout to hitch a costly joyride--the ultimate congressional junket. But the Utah Republican dismissed such carping as "sour grapes." After undergoing four months of intensive training to prove that he had the right stuff, Garn blasted off aboard the 16th U.S. shuttle mission last Friday...
...will be subjected to tests designed to increase understanding of space motion sickness, an affliction suffered by about half the people who go into orbit. In one of the "gastric motility" experiments, stethoscopic microphones were strapped to the Senator's midsection to record his stomach noises at takeoff (NASA has yet to release a tape of the senatorial rumblings). Said Garn: "I am hopeful that I can fill in a few of the pieces of the puzzle in the medical department...
...mission. The Senator, however, has impressive flight credentials. The son of a World War I pilot, he began flying at 16. As a naval pilot Garn flew transport missions in Viet Nam. All told, he has logged some 10,000 hours of flying time--more than any of NASA's 90 active astronauts except Air Force Colonel Joseph Engle. Garn is also in superb physical condition; he carries a muscular 170 lbs. on his 5-ft. 11-in. frame and has a resting pulse rate...
...last Harvard degree holder in space was Harrison J. Schmidt, who earned a Harvard Ph.D in geology in 1961 and walked on the moon in December 1972 as a member of the Apollo 17 crew. After leaving NASA, Schmidt served one term as a U.S. Senator from New Mexico...