Word: orbit
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Until recently NASA officially favored Earth Orbit Rendezvous. But now Lunar Orbit Rendezvous has become the most favored mode. Dr. Joseph F. Shea, Holmes's deputy in charge of systems, makes a convincing case for the decision. Each mode, says Shea, was broken down into major elements, starting with takeoff from the earth. To each element was assigned a number expressing its relative hazard as accurately as possible. A very safe element, for instance, might have been given the fraction .9998, while a very dangerous one might have gotten .75, meaning that it would probably fail...
...They will also take the bug out of the rear of the service module and attach it to the nose of the command module. After arriving in the vicinity of the moon, they will burn a little more fuel to nudge their ship into a 100-mile-high lunar orbit. Then two of the crewmen will crawl into the bug through an airlock and detach...
...will have its own rocket engines. By firing those engines briefly, the crew will be able to put their ship into an elliptical orbit that will dip to within ten miles of the moon's airless surface. As they swoop through perigee, the men in the bug will study the barren geography below, trying to recognize places that they have seen on maps and photographs. They will be able to correct their orbit as they climb back to apogee...
...lunar gravity (16% of the earth's) and lack of atmosphere, take-off from the moon should be comparatively easy. NASA planners believe that finding the mother ship and joining it will be no more difficult than long-practiced rendezvous with the same equipment while on earth orbit. The bug will be abandoned, to circle endlessly around the moon, and the reunited three-man crew will head back for earth. They will have to graze the atmosphere, hitting a "corridor" only 40 miles deep, but they will have plenty of time to correct their course...
Garbage. Rocket parts that go into orbit along with a satellite...