Word: orbiter
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...long after Eagle's successful touchdown, the Soviet space vehicle Luna 15 met with a less fortunate fate. The unmanned ship dropped from her lunar orbit and headed for the moon's surface. Telemetered data picked up by Western observatories indicated that Luna had hit too hard to survive. To most space experts, the failure was one more proof that the Russians are months if not years behind the U.S. in space technology...
...ascent engine had been test-fired more than 3,000 times, but this was no test. Houston radioed: "You're cleared for takeoff." Replied Aldrin: "Roger, understand. We're No. 1 on the runway." Seconds later, tension dissolved; Eagle was airborne, headed into a lunar orbit. Within four hours, the module had rendezvoused and docked with Columbia on the far side of the moon. Then Armstrong and Aldrin left the LM so quickly that ground controllers, caught by surprise, sounded a bit put out. "You beat us to the punch," groused Mission Control...
...were picked up by Mike Collins in the command ship, some 70 miles above their source on the lunar surface. The reason for the round trip of nearly half a million miles: Collins was in direct radio line with the LM for only 15 minutes during each two-hour orbit of the moon...
After Luna 15 reached the vicinity of the moon, it went into an 83-by 179-mi. orbit. On that basis, Lovell predicted that the Russians would attempt "to land the whole spacecraft, or part of it, and collect some rock." Most Western scientists, however, doubted that such a feat could be brought off successfully on the first try. They know that the Soviets have not yet even tested a rocket large enough to launch a Luna with enough fuel to land on the moon and take off again. They also believe that Russian space techniques are still not sophisticated...
NASA also hopes to keep its manned space effort alive by using surplus Saturn 4B rockets-which now serve as the third stage of the Apollo launch vehicle-for earth-orbiting flights. This effort, dubbed the Apollo Applications Program, will begin in 1971 with a 28-day flight by three men-one a doctor. These vehicles are only forerunners of a giant space station that NASA plans to orbit by the late 1970s. The first station will probably accommodate twelve people, including the first American spacewoman. It will remain aloft for at least ten years, with crew members rotated every...