Word: orbital
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...moon. Lockheed, Boeing and Rockwell have all been working on the conceptual designs for a space plane. At the moment, says one industry consultant, "it's just a gleam in everyone's eye." But what a gleam: the plane would take off on a conventional runway and fly into orbit like a rocket. It could launch satellites, much as the space shuttle has done, or it could simply whisk U.S. passengers from coast to coast in twelve minutes. Such staggering speed would only be possible with a new kind of engine that could function both in the atmosphere...
...astronaut training in 1978 and helped fly the 747 that carried the shuttle spacecraft between ground stations. As pilot of Challenger in 1984, he guided the spacecraft so that fellow crew members could retrieve a broken Solar Max satellite, which was repaired on board and later placed back into orbit. At an in-flight press conference, Scobee and the mission's four other astronauts showed up in T shirts that read ACE SATELLITE REPAIR...
...Sullivan of the New York Times was called to the phone, and the news he heard changed the world. Sullivan hurried back to the party and whispered in the ear of Physicist Lloyd Berkner, who rapped on the table for quiet. "I am informed that a satellite is in orbit at an elevation of 900 kilometers. I wish to congratulate our Soviet colleagues on their achievement...
...Wernher von Braun, 45, the exuberant Prussian who had fathered the German V-2 rockets. He had been among those who rushed into American hands when the Third Reich collapsed. Von Braun souped up his Redstone missile, put a tiny satellite dubbed Explorer on top and sent it into orbit. There was no turning back...
...when might the three remaining shuttles (Columbia, Discovery and Atlantis) go into orbit again? How many flights will--or indeed can--be scheduled, and what cargoes will take priority? Until the shuttle's fatal flaw can be identified and corrected, those questions will remain unanswered. But a few things seem clear. One is that even the temporary grounding of the shuttles, decreed by NASA immediately after the Challenger disaster, is a stunning setback to the entire U.S. space program. It will at best delay, and at worst force cancellation of, a wide variety of missions that were to have been...