Word: orbiteer
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Bright Planet. After completing their crucial rendezvous (TIME, March 14) and sending the Lunar Module they call Spider off into a looping 4,300-by-l 47-mile orbit, the astronauts were left alone in space with fully 97% of their mission objectives completed. The primary reason for remaining in orbit for another five days was to test the reliability of the Apollo systems. So the astronauts settled back for one of the most relaxed periods of any manned space flight to date, taking rest periods of ten hours or more. "The big events of today," cracked a NASA official...
...which is at latitude 28° north. Thus, a rocket fired in Guiana can lift about 24% more payload with the same thrust than one fired at Cape Kennedy. Moreover, Guiana has a 120° stretch of open water north and east of it that is ideal for polar-orbit launchings. As a result, France, forced out of its former space station in the Algerian desert two years ago, is bringing French Guiana into the space age with a $102 million investment in launch pads and their support complexes...
...first it was only a tiny speck in the sky. Then, as Astronaut David Scott peered through the window of Apollo 9's orbiting command module, the speck grew into the most ungainly manned craft ever sent into orbit. Said Scott: "You're the biggest, friendliest, funniest-looking spider I've ever seen." He was talking to the lunar module, known as Spider, and it bore two other astronauts who had earlier left Scott to guide it through space. By flying their ship through orbital maneuvers designed to simulate those to be used by astronauts returning from...
...through a narrow tunnel into Spider. Then, after a few uneasy moments when the docking mechanism snagged, Scott worked Gumdrop loose and fired his thrusters briefly to separate the two craft. With McDivitt at the controls, Spider shoved off onto its maiden solo flight. It moved into a different orbit from Gumdrop's and at one point fell more than 100 miles behind. Then McDivitt began maneuvering back toward the suspenseful rendezvous and docking. Had they not been able to re-enter Gumdrop's cabins, McDivitt and Schweickart would have been doomed. Designed to operate only...
Canceled Space Walk. Spider's return to Gumdrop was the highlight of the mission, which began last week after a three-day delay to allow the astronauts to recover from troublesome colds. Launched by a Saturn 5 rocket into a near-perfect orbit, Gumdrop, in flawless sequence, separated from the third-stage S-4B rocket, pivoted in space, hooked up with Spider and plucked it out of the nose of the orbiting S-4B. On the third day, Astronauts McDivitt and Schweickart got ready to enter Spider through the 47-in.-long, 32-in.-diameter connecting tunnel...