Word: orbiteer
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...long Ariane rocket rose into high earth orbit, it evoked multilingual cheers from technicians at France's Guiana Space Center and from European space officials watching a huge TV monitor outside Paris ("Très jolie!" "Excellent trajectory!"). The rocket carried a European weather observatory called Meteosat 2, an Indian communications satellite and a packet of heat-measuring devices. The flawless launch marked the first time the European Space Agency (ESA) had sent major payloads into orbit with its own booster...
Built by a French-dominated consortium of European companies, Ariane is a liquid-fuel rocket reminiscent of the U.S. Atlas/Centaur launch vehicle. In its first test, in 1979, the rocket reached orbit, but the second Ariane burned up shortly after liftoff, in 1980, because of engine failure. Thus Ariane's latest launch attempt -the next-to-last trial before the rocket is scheduled to go into regular commercial service-was regarded as something of a make-or-break proposition, like Columbia's flight last April...
...advantage. Aided by the boost it gets from launch near the equator (where the earth's surface velocity is greater than at higher latitudes either north or south), it can carry payloads to an ideal parking place, 22,300 miles above the equator, in what is called geosynchronous orbit. At that distance, satellites remain fixed over one spot on the ground, permanently in line of sight of antennas. The U.S. shuttle can reach a maximum altitude of only 690 miles, and additional boosters will be needed to loft payloads higher. Europeans were quick to make much of la diff...
...built himself a huge rocket to annihilate the city of London. He was foiled in his sinister strategems by James Bond, Agent 007. Now a businessman space buff named Gary Hudson is trying some rather far-out capitalism of his own, with a plan to start putting satellites into orbit from a private launching pad in Texas by 1983. So far, not even the U.S. Government is trying to stop...
...many of the cosmonauts could not hold their food down in the early days of a flight. Some had trouble getting to sleep, and were often awakened by the spacecraft's clattering and creaking. Others complained of fatigue and vertigo. In a revealing new book, Red Star in Orbit (Random House; $12.95), James Oberg offers some trenchant quotes from the flight diary of Salyut Cosmonaut Valeri Ryumin, who in three trips spent just short of a year in space. Writes Ryumin of his shaky introduction to space travel: "Looking into the mirror I fail to recognize myself. I feel...