Word: onboard
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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More than any of its predecessors, this contest pivots on high-tech advances. All competitors now have winged keels for stability, as well as sophisticated onboard data processors. Some syndicates were aided by government specialists and their supercomputers. The blueprints for French Kiss came from the labs of Dassault-Breguet, the French aircraft manufacturer famous for its Mirage fighter jets. A team of 30 scientists, including several "Star Wars" weapons-system researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, perfected USA's unique rudders at bow and stern that help prevent sideslip...
...controlled replicas of fighter jets and selling them to U.S. military bases for target practice. Continental's remotely piloted vehicles bear the authentic markings of, say, a Soviet MiG-27 but are only one-fifth or one-seventh its size. As the RPVs fly through flak from antiaircraft guns, onboard electronic devices record the hits and near misses and send the information to a computer on the ground...
...high tech also gets mixed in. Many drivers now have onboard computers to record fuel pressure and other parameters. A few teams have even started to use wind-tunnel testing. "First thing you know," says Garlits, "a computer'll be telling us what...
Even then the onboard computer, sensing the slightest glitch, could still abort a launch. As it happened, Resnik had been aboard the shuttle Discovery in June 1984 when, four seconds before the spacecraft's three main engines were to ignite for lift-off, the computer noted that the thrust from one of them was not at the proper level. The fuse was immediately pinched...
...when the oscillator could be turned on long enough for it to stabilize. This un- likely confluence actually occurred in late April. After the controllers reprogrammed NOAA-8's computer, they reoriented the satellite and restored its power. Last week the rescue team was testing the craft's onboard systems in preparation for returning it to full service in July. Said Controller Gilbert Phelps: "It was simply a matter of keeping...