Word: orbiteer
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...decade runs out, no longer seemed a fanciful goal for overambitious scientists. From the scorched launching pads of Cape Kennedy to the lonely tracking ships in the Pacific, Gemini had pumped new life into U.S. space work. And a public grown almost blasé about news of men in orbit waited for the astronauts' return with singular pride...
Calculating with split-second exactitude, NASA scientists had determined the proper time of Gemini 6's launch by the position and orbit of Gemini 7. Because the earth rotates on its axis once every 24 hours, while Gemini 7 was circling around it once every 96 minutes, there were only one or two brief periods a day when the launch pad for Gemini 6 was located approximately under Gemini 7's orbit and when the orbiting ship was close by-the proper launch "window" for a rendezvous attempt. For Wednesday, ideal launch time had been calculated...
...powerful Titan II rocket swiftly shoved Gemini 6 into an elliptical orbit that dipped as close to earth as 100 miles (perigee) and swung as far away as 161 miles (apogee). The average velocity was 17,535 m.p.h., only 8 m.p.h. slower than planned. Even more important, a maneuver of Gemini 6's second-stage launch rocket had placed the capsule in an orbital plane that nearly coincided with Gemini 7's; its path was almost directly below that of Gemini 7, slanting away at an angle of less than one-tenth...
Some 1,200 miles ahead, Gemini 7 sailed along at 17,290 m.p.h. The strategy of rendezvous, painstakingly plotted by NASA scientists and computers, called for Gemini 6 to catch up by taking advantage of orbital mechanics-the physical laws that govern the motion of orbiting bodies. Those laws state that an orbital path is determined by a delicate balance between gravity, which tries to pull a satellite down, and centrifugal force, which is proportional to the satellite's speed and tends to shove it farther away from the earth. A satellite orbiting close to earth, where the pull...
Because these violent outbursts never occur at the same point on the planet's eccentric orbit, some astronomers have suggested that they are caused by the erratic release of internal heat. This would indicate that Jupiter is behaving like a star as well as a planet-radiating not only energy absorbed from the sun but also giving off heat generated in its own interior. Jupiter's split personality has now been confirmed by a University of Arizona astronomer...