Word: orbiteer
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...spectacular launch hurls America 's shuttle, Columbia, into orbit...
...than half a million gallons of liquid hydrogen and oxygen. Columbia fired explosive charges to spin off its main tank, which disintegrated in a shower of fragments over the Indian Ocean, only ten miles off course, although at a higher altitude than expected. Then Columbia switched to its smaller, orbital maneuvering engines and fired a series of bursts that carried it into orbit...
...delta-shaped spacecraft-part rocket ship, part airplane-raced around the earth at an altitude of 150 miles, its nearly perfect performance seemed a glorious vindication of more than a decade of effort and expense. Columbia's flight plan called for a 54½-hr., 36-orbit mission, ending with a nerve-racking, gliding descent into California's Mojave Desert. There was every expectation that it would achieve that goal. Three and a half hours into the flight, as the spacecraft began its third orbit, Mission Control sent word that Columbia was "go" for the full flight...
Even before they got their green light, the astronauts were settling in for a long haul. With almost anticlimactic ease, Crippen operated the spacecraft's big cargo bay, opening and closing and then reopening its doors. That was an essential maneuver at the start of the second orbit, allowing the ship to rid itself of internal heat from all its operations, and it was executed flawlessly. Televised pictures from space quickly showed just how well the machinery worked. Even the big engine housings in Columbia's tail were dramatically visible against the blackness of space...
...astronauts' first tasks after they reach orbit will be to open the big mechanically controlled doors of the cargo bay. Besides testing the mechanism, the operation is essential for ridding the orbiter of heat from the electronic equipment. The doors will be kept ajar during much of the flight. To shade the exposed bay from the sun, Columbia will fly upside down...