Word: orbiter
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...space. When, a fortnight ago, the U.S.S.R.'s 10,143-lb. "flying zoo" floated gently to a landing before the startled eyes of peasants on a collective farm northeast of the Caspian Sea, Russia demonstrated unquestionably that it has mastered the techniques necessary to rocket a man into orbit around the earth and bring him back alive...
Most scientists feel that the Soviet Union will be the first to place a human in orbit: the U.S.'s Project Mercury, recovering from an embarrassingly slow start, is not far behind, but it will be at least nine months before a U.S. astronaut will enter orbit. "We have," mused one U.S. space expert, "a second-class nag in a first-class horse race." The Soviet achievement should give Russia an exploitable propaganda advantage. But what else, in terms of the basic science that may well decide man's future, will it mean? And what lies beyond mere...
...Earth Orbit...
...major scientific sense, the orbital flight program seems almost self-defeating. Both Russia and the U.S. insist that they will not attempt to place a man in orbit until they can reasonably guarantee his safe return to earth. But when problems of thrust, guidance, artificial environment, communications, reentry and recovery have been sufficiently solved to permit this assurance, the program already will have proved its point: that man can survive in a satellite. Thus, to many scientists, the stunt of actually putting a man in orbit then seems scarcely worth the effort, risk and financial burden...
...special lightweight oxygen bottle, for instance, took 18 weeks, cost more than $20,000. The Russians, whose rockets generate an estimated 800,000 Ibs. of thrust (v. Atlas' 360,000 Ibs.), had few weight restrictions, grabbed a huge advantage in the race to place a man in orbit. But enforced early miniaturization may pay off handsomely for the U.S. in exploration of deep space, when the huge distances involved (240,000 miles to the moon, 42 million miles to Mars) will create a more critical relationship between thrust and payload weight...