Word: orbiter
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
When the satellite finally reaches space it may be followed on its orbit by a frail, light, short-lived companion. Developed by William J. O'Sullivan Jr. (following a long-discussed idea), the inflated sub-satellite is a balloon of Mylar plastic .0025 in. thick covered with an aluminum film .0006 in. thick. When released from the third-stage rocket, it will weigh 10½ oz. complete and look like a wad of aluminum foil. A small capsule of compressed dry nitrogen will expand the plastic to a sphere 20 in. in diameter, which will follow at first...
...modified Viking rocket soared up 125 miles one night last week, its bright exhaust glowing briefly like a wrong-way shooting star. Its flight was a partial test of the "vehicle" that will lift the U.S. artificial satellite in 1958, and the instruments that will steer it, into its orbit around the earth. When the satellite is established there, one of its most important jobs will be to keep track of the global movements of the white clouds far below. It will then be busy at the homely old task of forecasting the weather, doing in essence what a farmer...
Although Gomulka had won the esteem, and even the affection of his people, for standing up to Russia, he was also doing a fine job of keeping Poland inside the Soviet orbit. At this moment of history his peculiar balance between Communism and patriotism makes him the ideal leader to both sides...
...Moonwatch stations also become important in the last stages of a satellite's flight, when it begins to drop out of its orbit. If the density of the atmosphere were perfectly known, this orbit too could be figured out by the computing machines. But since it is not, data returned by the observers of the falling satellite will be used instead...
...surplus material and can be obtained from supply houses. Special teams equipped with these monoculars will watch for the satellite from locations scattered across the country, and report bach to Smithsonian headquarters in Cambridge when they spy it. Computing machines will use these findings to plot the sphere's orbit around the earth...