Word: orbiteer
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...then fell away while the Able-Star took over, firing for five minutes. Then it shut off its engine and coasted upward and around the earth for 18 more minutes. Over South America the engine blasted again for a few seconds, giving the final push needed to attain an orbit with an apogee of 570 miles and a perigee of 341 miles...
Soon after reaching their orbit, the two satellites detached themselves from the second-stage rocket. A small explosion separated the satellites themselves, and a spring pushed them apart at about one mile per hour. Their radio transmitters kept sounding loud and clear...
...earth. The Transit navigation system is built on the fact that radio waves received from a satellite change their frequency as the satellite passes a ship or ground station. From that change, the instant when the satellite is closest can easily be determined. And since the satellite's orbit can be calculated far in advance, the almost-precise position of the ship receiving its signals can thereby be fixed. Last week a test of the system worked with extraordinary accuracy. Although the latest Transit lacked parts that will be ultimately carried, the Navy's tracking vessel, Observation Island...
...satellite hitchhiker was a space Cinderella. Originally intended to be taken aloft by the U.S.'s ill-fated Vanguard, it was left forlornly on earth when the Vanguard program was discontinued. Rescued by Transit, it is now on a beautiful orbit that will probably keep it up for 50 years. Its instruments are sending information about solar ultraviolet and X rays, which do not pass through the earth's atmosphere but have effects on its upper layers. Data from the Cinderella satellite may explain radio blackouts and some kinds of weather...
Also in the visible future is the manned spacecraft that, with techniques based on military nose-cone research, will bring its human travelers safely down from orbit or from an interplanetary journey. Strangely, the manned spacecraft in some ways presents fewer problems than the ICBM. Where an ICBM enters the atmosphere at about a 20° angle with a sudden, explosive shock, a space vehicle can come into the atmosphere flat, keeping its deceleration and temperature comparatively...