Word: orbital
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...satellite has been tirelessly circling the earth, speeding from pole to pole once every 103 minutes at an altitude of 563 miles. Unlike most satellites, it has kept its eyes not on the earth below but on the vast expanses of the universe. During each orbit it surveys a different slice of the sky, obtaining a nearly complete picture of the heavens. Last week, at a jubilant press conference in Washington, D.C., the multinational team of scientists and engineers responsible for the orbital telescope known as IRAS (for Infrared Astronomical Satellite) reported that they had succeeded beyond all expectations...
Nearer to earth, IRAS identified at least five new comets and spotted a "miniplanet" only 1.2 miles in diameter, possibly the cadaver of a comet, circling within the orbit of the innermost planet, Mercury. IRAS also uncovered some bands of fine dust spread over 100 million miles in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The dust may be the debris of collisions between asteroids...
...consider the effect of Senator John Glenn's space heroics on his presidential candidacy, the record should show that during those exact minutes when Glenn was drifting down out of orbit in his parachute and being fished out of the Atlantic Ocean, Kennedy was in a rage at the White House, questioning my ancestry, threatening my very journalistic life over a tiny item about his clothing that appeared in this magazine. Only when Captain Tazewell Shepard, naval aide, dashed in to announce, "Mr. President, Colonel Glenn is on the phone," did Kennedy climb back up on his pedestal with...
With all the publicity generated by the new movie The Right Stuff, perhaps the presidential candidacy of the Ohio Senator and former astronaut ought to be in some kind of celestial orbit. In reality, down-to-earth problems seem to be causing the John Glenn campaign to sputter. The latest sign of trouble: a major shake-up of Glenn's staff that reflects serious problems within the Senator's campaign effort...
...delay was especially embarrassing to NASA because Columbia was to have carried into orbit the $1.1 billion European-built Spacelab. A self-contained scientific station, it will perform a wide variety of experiments while parked in the shuttle's open cargo bay. At Kennedy last week crews stripped away the questionable booster while tests continued on why the insulating material failed. NASA said that there would be no firm word on a new launch date before Nov. 1. Lift-off could take place as soon as Nov. 28, but if that "window" is missed, the next opportunity would...