Word: orbit
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...Chinese, Peking?which had provided Hanoi with an estimated $14 billion in aid over the past two decades?abruptly cut off 21 current assistance projects. In June, as the last Chinese aid technicians went home, Hanoi yielded to longstanding Soviet blandishments and formally jumped into Moscow's economic orbit as a member of the Communist trade alliance, COMECON...
...June 19, 1976, an alien vessel, hurtling toward Mars, blasted its remaining rocket engine and moved into an elliptical orbit. It was the first of twin Viking spacecraft, each with an orbiter and a lander, launched by NASA to help satisfy man's curiosity about the possibilities of life on the planet. The Viking I orbiter's immediate chore was to survey the Martian surface and transmit pictures of potential landing sites. Once the lander was safely down (on July 20, 1976), the orbiter began snapping away at its aerial photographic study...
...pride of the U.S. space program, the largest and most sophisticated vehicle ever sent into orbit. Circling the earth every 90 minutes, the 85-ton Skylab had been a scientific workshop for three teams of astronauts for a total of 172 days. But lately it has been in trouble. Unoccupied since 1974, Skylab has been losing altitude much more rapidly than expected, a change threatening it with incineration in the earth's atmosphere...
...prevent that, NASA engineers had devised a daring rescue. The new space shuttle, slated to make its first flight in September, would intercept Skylab, attach a small booster engine to one end, then fire it. Thus space planners could either raise Skylab.to a higher orbit or send it plunging harmlessly into an ocean. Last week, after weighing the chances of such an orbital operation, NASA conceded defeat. That means Skylab will expire in a meteorite-like death that could scatter parts of the space station on populated regions...
...scientific error about the extent of sunspot activity in the late 1970s and its effect on Skylab. By spewing out clouds of charged particles, these great solar magnetic storms help heat up and expand the earth's upper atmosphere. That creates more drag for objects in orbit, hastening their reentry. Confronted by a falling Skylab, NASA last spring began developing the $26 million booster engine. But it was clear, especially after troubles with the shuttle's own engine, that a Skylab rescue could not be undertaken before April 1980. By then, chances of success were reckoned at less...