Word: orbital
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Dominating one wall of the control room was an enormous display screen showing a map of the world. Superimposed on the map, a line traced the orbit of the Mir space station, with rings along it representing ground stations. Mir's position was marked by a blue-green light, which was moving slowly across the circle centered on Moscow. The flyby would take only eight minutes, after which the window of communication would close. The audio feed came through with startling clarity, as if Cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko were standing in the next room. "The work here is very interesting...
...which the U.S. developed for the Apollo program and then scrapped in favor of the shuttle. With Energia, the Soviets can loft 100-ton payloads, vs. a maximum for the U.S. shuttle of 30 tons. That is enough to carry their shuttle, which is under development, or to orbit parts for a space station far larger than Mir, which could be a platform for a manned mission to Mars. Says Dale Myers, deputy administrator at NASA: "Energia is a pretty impressive machine. I would sure like to have...
...Venus' hellish surface. Imagers on the next two probes failed, but Nos. 13 and 14 sent back color photos plus a wealth of information on atmospheric, surface and subsurface chemistry. Then in 1983 came a pair of missions that stunned Western space scientists. Venera 15 and 16, in Venus' orbit, transmitted high-resolution radar maps of the planet's surface. The maps, says former NASA Administrator Beggs, "indicated a level of radar technology that we had not given the Soviets credit for." Says Masursky: "They did first-class work...
...imagine a whole bunch of people standing around the Chinese border. When they see a missile coming in, they all call all their friends, and these people then call all their friends. Then, when everyone in China is ready, they all jump. The world is thrown out of its orbit, and the incoming missiles are lost in space...
...Deng said to me, "If the world is thrown out of its orbit, won't there be a danger that the earth will be plummeted into that huge ball of fiery...