Word: orbiter
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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ADDITION OF DIVINE GUIDANCE. Stenciled at the top of the Vanguard, near the satellite itself, was HAVE BALL, WILL ORBIT. And at the base someone had printed three words that summed up the hopes of all missiledom: LOVE LIFTED ME. Vanguard was ready...
...Navy's test satellite, Vanguard I, may be small, but it is high and wondrously sophisticated, and it will probably stay in space many years longer than any of its earlier rivals. Its elliptical orbit varies between 404 miles and 2,466 miles above the earth. When it is ending its climb toward the high point (apogee), the satellite is moving slowest: only 12,000 m.p.h. Then it swoops down to the low point (perigee) and increases its speed to 18,400 m.p.h. It makes a full trip around the ellipse, 34,100 miles, in 134 minutes...
...Stable Orbit. Since Vanguard I never dips low enough to tangle with serious air resistance, it should stay in space for a very long time, certainly years. Instead of spiraling down slowly, like the Sputniks and Explorer I, it will stay on an almost stable orbit that will be only slightly disturbed by irregularities of the earth's gravitation...
...weak spring and pushed the two bodies apart. Dr. John P. Hagen, head of Project Vanguard, says that satellite and rocket are still moving apart slowly. The rocket, which has an irregular shape, will be more strongly affected by such little air resistance as there is even at orbit's perigee and will therefore be the first to drop back into the atmosphere and vaporize. But this will not happen for a long time...
This rough aiming is not good enough, either to hit the moon or to orbit around it. So toward the end of the journey a scanning device will pick up the moon's sunlit face, fix its position, and an artificial brain will figure out what to do next. It can light a small steering rocket to correct the course. If a landing on the moon is scheduled, a backward-acting retrorocket can be fired to reduce speed and impact. A different use of the two control rockets will make the vehicle orbit around the moon to report...