Word: orbit
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...whirled in orbit around the moon, the instrument-crammed Soviet spaceship Luna 10 was busily recording and reporting man's first continuous supply of data about the lunar environment. Though the Russians did not tell all they learned, the information they did release confirmed that their distant capsule was carrying out its fact-finding mission with singular success...
...gravity. A sudden increase in frequency followed by fading of the signal led Lovell to believe that a retrorocket had been fired, slowing Luna down. He interpreted the erratic signals that were received afterward to mean that the spacecraft had successfully achieved a 300-to 400-mile-high lunar orbit, but that it was tumbling and not transmitting any television signals...
When the Russians finally broke their silence, they revealed that Luna 10 was in an orbit that took it around the moon once every two hours and 58 minutes. Though the Russians described several devices aboard the craft's 540-lb. instrument capsule, and reported that they were sending back useful information, they made no mention of a television camera, thus lending support to Lovell's conclusion that no pictures were being transmitted...
...unreserved praise for both Russian and U.S. space achievements while bluntly criticizing what he considers misguided efforts. In 1962 he violently opposed the U.S. hydrogen-bomb explosion in space over the Pacific, and has spoken out against a communications experiment that placed a band of metallic needles in orbit. In both cases he was convinced that the shots endangered other scientific projects and observations. When a Soviet space probe actually hit Venus last month, he castigated the Russians with equal vigor. "This is a regrettable event which has annoyed me considerably," he said. "This landing may have seriously affected...
...Administration's sword's-point showdown over the dismantling of Soviet missile sites in Cuba. "There were those who disagreed with the President," says Peck. But they obviously don't matter very much. On the New Frontier, once unreliable U.S. rockets sail obediently into orbit. In the movie's oversimple view of Washington under Kennedy, intramural shoptalk and crackling press conferences disappear, for the city is "transformed into a cultural capital." In fact, this is neither Kennedy's Washington nor Washington's Kennedy. It is a legend for export, smoothly put together, fiercely partisan...