Word: orbited
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Despite those lost years, the U.S. has just about closed the ballistic-missile gap. As most U.S. missilemen see it, the U.S.'s ballistic missiles are, militarily speaking, superior to the U.S.S.R.'s. The Russian rocket that carried the Lunik into orbit produced a lot more thrust than any U.S. missile, but if the military job of a ballistic missile is to travel accurately from one point on the globe to another with a warhead in its nose, U.S. missiles appear fit to do the job at least as well as their bulkier Russian counterparts...
...Domains. Scurrying to make up for lost time after Sputnik I, the U.S. has put five satellites into orbit (Explorers I, III and IV, Vanguard, Atlas); fired two near-miss lunar probes (Pioneers I and III); started on an array of other satellite or space-probe projects; let development contracts with the Rocketdyne Division of North American Aviation Inc. for space-rocket engines with thrusts of 1,000,000 lbs. or more; pushed a man-in-space undertaking, Project Mercury, that is scheduled for announcement this month. But despite the flurry of projects, the U.S. has made disappointingly little progress...
...overall aim was good. U.S.'s Pioneer III deviated from its planned course by 3.5°. If it had reached the moon's orbit, it would have missed the moon by about 14,590 miles. The Russian miss (4,660 miles) was an error of only slightly more than...
Ever since the Russians launched their Sputnik III on May 15, 1958, rocket experts have known that they had the potential ability to toss a good-sized bird out of the earth's gravitational field. To put a satellite on a nearby orbit around the earth takes only about 25% less speed than the escape velocity (25,000 m.p.h.) that will free it from the earth. All the Russians needed to do was to increase slightly the power of Sputnik Ill's launching rockets or to reduce its final weight. U.S. failure to reach the moon was mainly...
Degrees of Success. Since the Russians do not call their shots before they fire, Lunik may have been designed for several degrees of success. The most difficult would be to go into orbit around the moon, as the U.S. Air Force hoped to do with Pioneer I. But this stunt requires a small rocket to nudge the final stage into capture by the moon's gravitational field, and the Russians have not mentioned any such item. Next degree of success would be to pass around the moon and return to earth. If the Russians were trying to do this...