Word: orbiter
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Person of the Week STAR WARRIOR? When U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld pledged to boost the Pentagon's space programs, citing America's ever-increasing dependency on satellites, he stopped short of calling for weapons in orbit. But critics fear his script for the future was inspired by George Lucas...
...DAVID WALKER, 56, former astronaut who commanded the 1989 Atlantis voyage and launched the Magellan probe that mapped the surface of Venus; in Houston, Texas. Walker also flew on three other U.S. space shuttle missions, including the 1984 Discovery, which was the first successful attempt at retrieving satellites from orbit. DIED. ISAAC ("IKE") COLE, 73, jazz pianist and composer and brother of the late Nat ("King") Cole; in Sun Lakes, Arizona. Cole, who once considered changing his name to differentiate himself from his more famous brother, played keyboard on Unforgettable, the Grammy-winning 1992 tribute album by Nat's daughter...
...Russians weren't going to give up their rights without a fight. It wasn't only principle at stake: Tito is reportedly funneling $20 million into that country's financially strapped space agency for the privilege of spending quality time in orbit. The original plan was to send him for a visit to Russia's aging Mir space station. But when Mir took a controlled dive into the Pacific Ocean earlier this spring, the Russians insisted that he be allowed aboard the ISS instead...
...tried to stop Tito's trip since January. That's when the Russian Space Agency informed NASA that Tito would be aboard the April taxi mission scheduled to replace a Soyuz rescue vehicle now on orbit at the space station with a fresh one. NASA officials claimed that an untrained tourist would present a danger aboard the space station. They were also anxious about the precedent of one of the station partners' launching a unilateral commercial venture. But the cash-strapped Russians insisted. Eventually, the fight involved the other 14 countries who are partners in the space station. To space...
...paucity of achievements in space exploration. As Astronaut Buzz Aldrin has said, “History will remember the inhabitants of the last century as the people who went from Kitty Hawk to the Moon in 66 years, only to languish for the next 30 in low Earth orbit.” This slowdown can be attributed to the fact that NASA’s funding has been cut repeatedly, and ambitious programs have been scrapped for more cost-effective and passive endeavors...