Word: orbiters
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...oddly configured contraption, nestled in the big cargo bay of the space shuttle, represents a giant step into the cosmos. When Columbia roars off its Florida pad on Monday morning, Nov. 28, it will be carrying the billion-dollar Spacelab, the first true scientific research station in orbit...
Spacelab was built in West Germany under the auspices of the eleven-member European Space Agency (ESA). Packed with everything from computers to miniature automated factories, it is a major advance over Skylab, the U.S.'s first scientific work station in orbit, which was occupied by three successive teams of astronauts in the early 1970s. Spacelab is also considerably more sophisticated than the current Salyut 7, which the Soviets hint may be the first building block of a larger orbital station. Spacelab's uniqueness lies in the versatility of its three major components: 1) two cylindrically shaped laboratories...
...satellite has been tirelessly circling the earth, speeding from pole to pole once every 103 minutes at an altitude of 563 miles. Unlike most satellites, it has kept its eyes not on the earth below but on the vast expanses of the universe. During each orbit it surveys a different slice of the sky, obtaining a nearly complete picture of the heavens. Last week, at a jubilant press conference in Washington, D.C., the multinational team of scientists and engineers responsible for the orbital telescope known as IRAS (for Infrared Astronomical Satellite) reported that they had succeeded beyond all expectations...
Nearer to earth, IRAS identified at least five new comets and spotted a "miniplanet" only 1.2 miles in diameter, possibly the cadaver of a comet, circling within the orbit of the innermost planet, Mercury. IRAS also uncovered some bands of fine dust spread over 100 million miles in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The dust may be the debris of collisions between asteroids...
...consider the effect of Senator John Glenn's space heroics on his presidential candidacy, the record should show that during those exact minutes when Glenn was drifting down out of orbit in his parachute and being fished out of the Atlantic Ocean, Kennedy was in a rage at the White House, questioning my ancestry, threatening my very journalistic life over a tiny item about his clothing that appeared in this magazine. Only when Captain Tazewell Shepard, naval aide, dashed in to announce, "Mr. President, Colonel Glenn is on the phone," did Kennedy climb back up on his pedestal with...