Word: orbiter
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...anybody's!) most extraordinary examples of patient scientific research. After the discoveries of Uranus and Neptune in 1781 and 1846 it was suspected, because of small irregularities in the motions of these distant wanderers, that there was still another, even fainter, planet. Astronomers calculated a probable orbit, and in March 1929 young Clyde Tombaugh took up the search. He examined scores of telescopic photographs, each showing tens of thousands of star images, in pairs under the blink comparator, or dual microscope. It often took three days to scan a single pair. It was exhausting, eye-cracking work...
...plight of Gemini 8 seemed desperate enough while it tumbled out of control on its high orbit. Last week, when the perils of that wild ride were reviewed at a Houston press conference, Astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott seemed to have come even closer to disaster. Their firsthand account, and further interpretation of telemetered data, supplied frightening new details about Gemini's troubles; to make the danger even more dramatic, there were the remarkable color snapshots and motion pictures brought back to earth by the astronauts...
When the Gemini capsule is operating properly, its attitude in orbit can be changed by firing strategically placed thrusters that can roll the vehicle, yaw its nose to one side or the other, or pitch it up or down. Once thrusters have been fired to change the orientation of the craft, however, other thrusters-pushing in the opposite direction-must be fired to stop the motion at the desired point. In the absence of an atmosphere to slow it down by friction, the spacecraft would continue any attitude-changing maneuver indefinitely unless reverse thrust were available to stop...
...Steely Embrace. That dark news shadowed a day that had actually seen a considerable technical triumph. The most important part of the flight was the docking maneuver, and Armstrong and Scott were still in their first orbit when they began the complicated exercise in space navigation. By 4:21 p.m. E.S.T., during Gemini 8's third revolution over the Pacific, Armstrong reported: "Object in sight." There was the Agena, 76 miles ahead, its beacon flashing against the dark sky. After gradually closing the gap, Gemini 8 eased up and in front of the Agena, while swinging around so that...
Around the time that Astronauts Armstrong and Scott were ordered to return to earth after less than a day in orbit, two Russian space travelers were finishing a much longer flight. After 22 days in orbit in their Cosmos 110 satellite-longer than any other living beings have spent in space-Cosmodogs Veterok and Ugolyok were brought down to a safe landing in Russian Central Asia. Still wearing their space jackets, they were promptly flown to Moscow for a triumphant TV appearance...