Word: orbit
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...after just an 84-day turnaround from its last, aborted mission, the revamped Columbia performed "in an absolutely exemplary manner, and I could not be happier." The intense focus of interest in the Canaveral press room, though, was the darkened and disabled Mir, at that moment spinning crazily in orbit with its three-man crew huddled in the escape capsule. The two missions, and the two national space programs today provided a stark contrast in performance that members of Congress are sure to note...
...results are starting to show. In September the Mars Global Surveyor, already en route to the planet, will settle into orbit and begin a two-year program of photographing and mapping the terrain below. Over the next eight years, up to eight more ships will follow. As these new probes are heading Marsward, others will be dispatched to places as familiar as the moon and as remote as Pluto. "In the next 10 years," says NASA administrator Daniel Goldin, "we'll be flying by, orbiting, landing, roving and bringing back samples from every critical planetary body in the solar system...
...covering the sphere can get pricey. In 1993, before NASA's Mars Observer spacecraft had even entered orbit around the planet, it blew an aneurysm in a fuel line and spun off into the void, taking nearly $1 billion of NASA funding with it. The twin Viking spacecraft, which accomplished their missions successfully, landing on Mars in 1976, nonetheless set taxpayers back about $3 billion...
...evidence of a water ocean beneath a thin rind of ice on Jupiter's moon Europa. Where there's water, there's usually heat, and where there's water and heat, there could well be life. Sometime after 2000, NASA is hoping to launch a Europa probe that will orbit the Jovian moon at an altitude of 60 miles--about the same distance at which Apollo spacecraft used to orbit Earth's moon--photographing its surface and taking radar soundings to look for water beneath its crust. If the radar picks up the telltale echoes of liquid, another spacecraft would...
Project Viking's major goal was to search for signs of life on Mars. Each of the twin spacecraft consisted of an orbiter and a lander. Slipping into Mars' orbit in June 1976, Viking 1 spent a month shooting detailed pictures of the surface, photos that enabled J.P.L. controllers to choose a safe spot for Viking 1's lander to touch down. On July 20, lander 1 separated from its orbiting mother ship. Using retrorockets, deploying a parachute and finally firing three descent engines, it bumped gently onto a rock-covered slope on the planet's southern hemisphere. Forty-five...