Word: orbit
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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When the moon was first captured. Dr. Alfven believes, it did indeed curve through space in the opposite direction from the earth's rotation. And, as expected of such a satellite, it drew gradually closer to the earth. Its orbit became circular. About 2.5 billion years ago, the earth-moon system passed through a violent crisis. The approaching moon exerted more and more gravitational pull on the earth's oceans. Tides miles high swept around the globe in a few hours. At last the moon reached Roche's limit,* the closest that a satellite can come...
...will not be reflected efficiently, and even if the wire belt causes some unexpected kind of trouble for radio astronomers, it will not last forever. The almost invisible wires are strongly affected by the pressure of sunlight. In five years or less, they will be pushed out of their orbit and will burn like junior meteors in the atmosphere...
...shoot a bunch of copper wires into a thin, high band that could be used to relay radio microwaves around the curve of the earth. But even before the first rocket of the Air Force Project West Ford blasted off its pad, the protests of outraged scientists soared into orbit. Metal wires, the world's astronomers warned, would also reflect sunlight, fogging the photographic plates of optical telescopes. They would foul up radio astronomy by reflecting man-made radio waves and masquerading as distant stars or galaxies...
...protests were still mounting when the first attempt at Project West Ford flopped. Its collection of copper wares went into orbit as scheduled, but the wires failed to spread out. Circling the earth as a few lumps, they remained inactive, bothering neither optical nor radio telescopes...
Spreading Sausage. The astronomers relaxed, but not for long. Last week, after issuing soothing releases, M.I.T.'s Lincoln Lab announced that Project West Ford was blasting off once more. A redesigned dispenser climbed into a polar orbit riding piggyback on a secret Air Force satellite. Lincoln Lab scientists followed its course, and when they were sure it was in the proper orbit, they sent a signal that released a powerful spring...