Word: orbited
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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After the Russians got their Sputnik into its orbit, an Administration official said he felt an urge to "strangle" Budget Director Percival Brundage. But the Administration has budgeted for Vanguard all the funds that the men who run the project asked for ($110 million so far). And that stock villain, interservice rivalry, did not slow up the project, according to Vanguard scientists. In fact, the scientists, from Dr. Hagen down, insist that Vanguard has not failed, that it will reach its basic goal of orbiting a satellite before...
...made-in-Russia satellite continued to circle the earth last week, apparently as steady in its orbit as the made-by-nature moon. Most details about it still came from Russia. Repeating the previously announced dimensions, diameter: 58cm. (22.8 in.); weight: 83.6kg. (184.3 Ibs.), Pravda described it as a sphere of aluminum alloys with a "polished and specially treated surtace" and four metal rods as antennae 2.4 to 2.9 meters (7.9 to 9.5 ft.) long. When the carrier rocket was fired, the rods were folded back against the sphere, but swung outward on swivels when the satellite reached...
...have gained much scientific information from the satellite, but the rest of the world is beginning to catch up. Britain's 250-ft. radiotelescope at Jodrell Bank turned itself into an impromptu radar and pinpointed the satellite or its carrier rocket over Britain. As the slowly shifting orbit carried Sputnik over the east coast of the U.S., hundreds of early risers in New England saw the sunlit speck sweep across the predawn sky. Some saw two moving objects, the brighter of which was probably the carrier. Shot on film at Baltimore by WJZ-TV using a camera with...
Naked-eye observation is not of much use for plotting the satellite's orbit, but the Smithsonian's Astrophysical Observatory at Cambridge, Mass, got a few accurate reports from Moonwatch teams that were organized to observe the still-grounded U.S. satellite. These data, digested in 21 seconds by a big computer at M.I.T., gave a pretty good orbit for the satellite. It is elliptical, carrying Sputnik to an apogee (high point) 583 miles above the earth and bringing it down to its perigee (low point) 143 miles up. Since both these distances are added to the radius...
...Lower the Faster. As Sputnik entered its second week, there was no evidence that it was losing altitude, but its carrier seemed to be feeling the strain. The carrier is probably a large, empty cylinder with a lot of air resistance for its weight, so the thin air at orbit level takes more energy from it. But as the carrier loses energy to the air, it does not lose speed. It spirals down to a lower orbit and speeds up. The nearer an orbiting body is to the earth, the faster it must move. The earth's natural moon...