Word: orbiteer
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Final Mission. Blasting off after a 31-hr. 31-min. stay on the moon, Intrepid's ascent stage quickly gathered speed as it rose above the Ocean of Storms. "Wow, we're really smoking along," Conrad shouted. Within minutes, Intrepid was successfully inserted into a low lunar orbit with an apolune (high point) of about 50 miles. Three hours later, Intrepid was so close to Yankee Clipper that the command module's color TV camera caught a picture of Conrad's face, visible in an LM window. "Stand by to receive the skipper...
...approached the moon early this week, Apollo 12 was scheduled to insert itself into a nearly circular orbit about 69 miles above the lunar surface. Conrad and Bean would then crawl through the tunnel leading from Yankee Clipper into Intrepid and cast off in the landing craft, leaving Gordon to guide the command ship through 19 solo orbits of the moon. Early Wednesday the two men would begin the gentle, arcing descent to the lunar surface...
...danger lasted for only a fraction of a second. As soon as the A.C. circuits failed, three batteries delivering direct current took over automatically, bringing the Apollo spacecraft's vital systems back to life. Meanwhile, the mighty Saturn rocket was blasting away unaffected, lifting the astronauts toward orbit. After quickly resetting circuit breakers that had been sprung by a mysterious surge of current, the astronauts managed to restore A.C. power. "We're weeding out our problems here," Conrad reported calmly. "I'm not sure we didn't get hit by lightning." Neither were NASA scientists...
Despite the brief blackout, the spacecraft hurtled into a nearly perfect 118-mile-high earth orbit. By testing the spacecraft's navigational and guidance computers, the astronauts confirmed that the instruments had been left unscathed by the power surge. Halfway through the second revolution, after ground controllers were assured that Apollo was in perfect shape, Conrad fired the third stage S-4B rocket. The 51-minute burn increased the spacecraft's speed to 24,100 m.p.h., lifted it from orbit and sent it on its way to the moon. Said Conrad: "Everything is tickety...
...Ocean of Storms at the right time of lunar day. On this course, too, Apollo could loop the moon and head back if its big engine failed to fire again. But, even so, it might miss the earth by 56,000 miles, marooning the astronauts in eternal orbit around...