Word: orbitals
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...fiery, Jupiter-bright object that flashed across moonlit skies from Florida to New York early last Thursday morning was neither star nor planet nor UFO. It was the space shuttle Discovery putting on a spectacular light show on its way into orbit for eight days of atmospheric research. The successful -- at last! -- launch was a big relief for NASA. Two days earlier, Discovery's countdown was halted 11 seconds before lift-off because of a faulty computer circuit. Two weeks before that miscue, a mission by sister shuttle Columbia was scrubbed just three seconds before launch, after a valve...
...thousand times. Then he was in the air as high as he could go, his right arm raised with the ball touching the heel of his hand and resting like a cloud on his fingertips. He flexed his wrist, and he felt the ball lift off into a medium orbit, and as soon as it began the 15-ft. trajectory, he knew it would...
...Kennedy Space Center -- civilian workers have been looting equipment, crippling the facility's launch pad in the process. The Russian space program is also involved in a feud with the new Ukrainian state, which has its own space program. A Russian meteorological satellite was turned off in orbit, so Ukraine couldn't recover weather data from it. Some of the stolen Baikonur equipment has mysteriously resurfaced in Ukraine. Understandably, the disarray of Russia's once great space program has NASA officials worrying about scheduled joint U.S.-Russian manned spaceflights...
...enormous complexity of mounting the new mirrors, replacing the solar-energy panels and making all the other necessary fixes on the Hubble, the space agency has several factors going in its favor. Unlike every other satellite NASA has flown to rescue, Hubble was designed to be serviced in orbit. Before it was launched, more than 16,000 photographs were taken of every square inch of the spacecraft to ensure that astronauts wouldn't be surprised once they started working. Handrails, footholds and handholds were strategically placed around Hubble, and every bolt was made the same size so that spacewalking mechanics...
...Bond, who published an account of brutal tortures inflicted on him by Mobutu's minions, later proceeded to serve him twice as Prime Minister. As Mobutu shifts appointees in and out of office, sometimes on a monthly basis, erstwhile opponents have shown a willingness to return to his orbit, occasionally banking tidy sums in the process...