Word: orbiteer
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...Last Star, but she might just as well have said The Last Vamp. Taylor probably is the end of a line that stretches back to Clara Bow: flamboyant, outsize and so self-absorbed and utterly beautiful that anyone who comes near is likely to be drawn into her orbit by force of gravity. As Fisher puts it somewhat less kindly, "Elizabeth liked to collect trophies...
There are other communications satellites now in orbit (Westar 1, Comstar D2), but cable programmers like Warner Amex and HBO regard the Satcoms as particularly desirable. Reason: their customers, the cable operators around the country, have antennas that can pick up signals from only one satellite at a time. Naturally, the cable operators would rather invest in a single antenna and still receive the widest possible variety of programs to pass on to home subscribers. Since the Satcoms carry almost nothing but cable signals, they offer such a variety. Thus for programmers, leasing a transponder on a Satcom is like...
Space officials tried to put the best possible face on Columbia's latest troubles, which began two weeks ago when clogged oil filters caused an abrupt postponement of the flight. After all, just getting a used spacecraft into orbit was a notable first. The Soviets, who have been hurtling cosmonauts into space with awesome regularity, have yet to attempt such a feat. U.S. space officials emphasized that all of Columbia's first four missions are in fact test flights. Their purpose is to turn up just such "glitches" as Columbia's problems with its electrical system, before...
...Engle and Truly had still managed to perform most of their work load, especially the key experiment: trying out for the first time in zero-gravity the shuttle's $100 million Canadian-built mechanical arm. On future flights, the arm will be used to place satellites in earth orbit and to pluck them out of space and load them into the orbiter's big cargo bay when they require servicing or replacing. NASA's verdict on the extraterrestrial crane would have delighted any orbiting sidewalk superintendent: the six-jointed 50-ft.-long arm was extended, bent...
Mission Control resolved to try again, but a new mechanical storm cloud soon appeared. Two oil filters, closely resembling the ones used in automobiles, had become clogged with gunk. As a result, two of the shuttle's three auxiliary power units-hydraulic devices crucial to entering orbit and landing-were questionable...