Word: orbiteer
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...time Skylab reached orbit, NASA controllers were sure that it was in trouble. As the 85-ton spacecraft began circling the earth, it jettisoned its protective shroud, moved its telescope mount into place and unfolded the four windmill-like solar wings that sit above it. But indications were that the remaining solar wing on the Orbital Workshop could not swing out more than a few degrees from the ship and was thus not able to unfold its light-gathering panels. That was bad news indeed. It meant that Skylab was deprived of more than half its electrical power. Even...
...alone in its space troubles. Two weeks ago, the Russians orbited an unmanned spacecraft that they identified only as Cosmos 557. Last week U.S. intelligence sources reported that the mysterious Cosmos was in fact an unmanned Soyuz spacecraft that appears to have been launched as the intended docking target for a second manned Soyuz. The two ships, in effect, would have formed a mini-space station in earth orbit. But a failure apparently occurred aboard Cosmos, and the scheduled manned launch had to be scrubbed. Thus the Russians appear to have suffered a second major setback in space only weeks...
Launched last month in an effort to beat the larger Skylab into orbit, Salyut 2 was to have marked the resumption of the manned Soviet space effort after an interruption of nearly two years, in time for the big Communist May Day celebrations. It was in June 1971 that three cosmonauts perished when the hatch of their Soyuz space craft failed while they were returning from a highly successful 24-day mission aboard Salyut 1. Since then, the Russians have thoroughly redesigned Soyuz and were expected to use it to ferry men to the new orbital workshop...
...after last month's launch of Salyut 2 into orbit, days and eventually weeks slipped by without a manned launch...
...cause of the mishap is still in doubt. One U.S. theory was that the third stage of Salyut's large booster may have exploded after rocketing the spaceship into orbit, possibly because of an excess of unburned fuel. Drifting only a short distance away, the booster may have sent fragments ripping into Salyut, thereby badly damaging the gyroscopic controls and thrusters that help maintain the ship's stability. Another possible explanation was that one of the Soviet Union's oceangoing tracking ships inadvertently fired one of Salyut's thrusters, sending it into an uncontrollable spin...