Word: orbited
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...that Donald K. ("Deke") Slayton would never forget. On March 15, 1962, only two months before the taciturn astronaut was scheduled to become the second American to orbit the earth, NASA doctors abruptly grounded him. Reason: they had discovered an occasional irregularity in the rhythm of his heartbeat. The bitterly disappointed Slayton subsequently became chief of flight-crew operations at the Manned Spacecraft Center and played a key role in picking all future space crews, including the first men to land on the moon. But even as he sent other astronauts to the launch pad, he never stopped dreaming...
...Star, he was particularly intrigued by Epsilon Eridani. Though most nearby stars are small, relatively faint "red dwarfs," Epsilon Eridani is a bright yellow-orange star somewhat like the sun with about seven-tenths of its mass and 30% of its luminosity. Thus, if there were any planets in orbit around Epsilon Eridani, at least one might be at the right distance from the parent star to receive enough light and heat to sustain the evolution of life. In fact, the similarities between Epsilon Eridani and the sun prompted radio astronomers in 1960 to aim their big antennas...
...once unfettered press, its famed "market socialism," its relaxed, decentralized, federal form of government-just about everything, in short, that Tito eagerly embraced in the early 1950s when he led his vulnerable nation of 21 million on its courageous spin away from Moscow's orthodox Communist orbit. While some believe that the new hard line may be temporary and tactical, the severity of Yugoslavia's swing toward rigidity has led many Yugoslavs to worry that the experiment in Communism-with-a-difference is coming...
...Apollo's three-day homeward voyage, the astronauts had exceptionally smooth sailing. "America has found some fair winds and following seas," said Cernan after the main engine had successfully lifted the command ship out of lunar orbit. As the spacecraft emerged from behind the moon for the last time, the astronauts aimed their TV camera at the surface below and sent back the first live pictures of features on the backside that are invisible from earth, including the giant Tsiolkovsky Crater (named for the Russian space pioneer). Next day, some 180,000 miles from earth, Command Module Pilot Evans...
...Gentle. Little more than seven minutes after its spectacular ascent from the lunar surface, Challenger was in lunar orbit, ready for its rendezvous with America. "God, you look pretty," Cernan radioed as Challenger approached the mother ship. Evans maneuvered America so gingerly in the final phases that the first docking contact was too gentle; the latches of the docking mechanism failed to catch. The two ships came together harder on the second try and were firmly joined. Taking their rocks, films and other paraphernalia with them, Cernan and Schmitt climbed through the connecting tunnel and rejoined Evans; the moonwalkers...