Word: orbiter
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Kettering's senior physics master, Geoffrey Perry, began to suspect the existence of a new Russian launch site last March after his teen-age students recorded signals from the newly launched Cosmos 112 reconnaissance satellite and plotted its orbit. Instead of being inclined to the equator at 65°-the inclination angle of earlier Cosmos orbits-112's orbital path had an angle of 72°. Also, the satellite had been launched at a later time of day than previous Cosmos shots and had returned to earth after 122 revolutions, instead of the usual 124. In a letter...
Chuckles While Sipping. Astérix appears in a syndicated strip in 15 magazines, but his influence is vastly wider. The first French satellite launched into orbit was nicknamed Astérix. This year, French children are asking Père Noël for the Astérix costumes, dolls and masks that are being sold all over the country. Huge papier-mâché models of the little warrior and his blimpish, pigtailed companion Obélix stare down from Christmas displays in department stores. More than 3,600,000 copies of eight hard-cover...
...simulate fires in orbit, the scientists loaded test chambers containing high concentrations of oxygen into KC-135 jet transports and flew them through parabolic arcs, creating 30 seconds of zero gravity during each maneuver. In the brief period of weightlessness, they ignited a variety of materials within the test chambers and took color movies of the results. Though the fires lit up promptly, the flames began to die down within 1½ seconds; they simply smoldered or went out completely during the remaining period of weightlessness. Scientists estimated that the burning rates of test materials were reduced by as much...
...tactics of Delta warfare are far from ideal. Helicopters swoop in low and drop troops in the open. Other armed choppers orbit overhead, ready to help out if the enemy is in the trees, but the infantryman must slog forward, sinking up to his knees at times in oozing, smelly mud, wading through canals that cut across the fields every few hundred yards, and finally rushing into the village to overrun the enemy's positions. Vietnamese troops, who seldom weigh much more than 100 Ibs., move with considerable ease through the mud and can keep going from sunup...
...Orbiter is scheduled to complete the tedious transmission of its pictures by Dec. 10. Shortly afterward, having carried out a practically perfect mission, it will be ordered to fire its retrorocket, drop out of orbit and plunge to destruction on the moon below...