Word: orbit
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...first manned space station has yet to be shot aloft, but earthbound engineers are already dealing with the possibility of accident in orbit, struggling with the difficult problem of bringing men back alive from some far-out disaster. What will happen, for example, if a spacecraft's retrorockets are disabled so that it cannot slow down for the long descent toward home? Will the occupants have to be abandoned...
Lobbing a working communications satellite out to the fringes of space was a signal achievement. The task of repairing it in orbit seemed wildly improbable. But when Bell Telephone Laboratories' Telstar sullenly ignored a command after four months of faithful performance, Bell's electronic doctors wasted no time. While unresponsive Telstar circled the earth in silence, they spent six frantic weeks in their labs concocting a cure for its ailment...
Practical experience with Relay, the communications satellite built by RCA, was no help. Relay, which went into orbit on Dec. 13, refused to work properly right from the start; a defective part let most of the power leak out of its storage battery. But Relay still obeyed commands. It was told to throw switches to isolate the faulty transponder (transmitter-receiver). Solar cells were able to recharge the satellite's battery. Last week Relay was in operation, using its spare transponder...
...earth's, while the moon, which rotates once in 27 days, has apparently no field at all. So the fact that Venus has little or no magnetic field may mean that it rotates slowly. It may keep the same face toward the sun during its 225-day orbit, as some astronomers believe...
Another ambitious U.S. space project was in questionable shape at week's end The Relay communication satellite built by Radio Corp. of America for NASA was launched into orbit, with its high point 4,612 miles above the earth and an Sing time of 3 hr. 5 min. Relay was expected to start carrying voice communications between the continents on its fifth orbit, but something happened to its power supply. Telemetering told that the was low, so scientists did not turn on the main transmitter. The voltage continued to drop, and at week's end NASA scientist announced...