Word: orbiters
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...answer came Sunday morning, 23 hours and 32 minutes after Nikolayev's launching, with the news that Vostok IV was in orbit. The Soviet announcement said that the purpose of the mission was to check "contact" between spacecraft in similar orbits and to gain new knowledge on the effects of sustained weightlessness on the human body. Moscow declared that both cosmonauts were quickly in radio communication as they soared around the globe approximately every 88 minutes, were even able to exchange grins by means of direct television contact. Moreover, the cosmonauts reported to the ground that they could...
...Tuesday, tension and fatigue aloft were plainly beginning to wear the cosmonauts down. On his fourth day in orbit, Nikolayev blew up at a Soviet tracking station that had given him the wrong time. "You were wrong by five minutes," he said, in understandable anger. "Please give me a new time recording now. Can't you hear what I say? Start the timing, for heaven's sake...
...both orbits were fast decaying toward the upper edge of the earth's atmosphere, where the capsules had to be brought down or run the risk of fiery destruction. Up flashed a message from the Russian ground control station to Popovich: "Since your meter shows low temperature and humidity, and considering that you have completed your mission, make preparations to land on the 49th orbit. Check your ship's interior safety belt, the safety belt key, the seat catapult switch and the condition of your space suit. The wind velocity at the landing site is seven to nine...
Minutes later, Nikolayev radioed in. "This is Falcon. Confirming landing at 6sth orbit. The pressure in the cabin is i.i, the temperature 11° (Centigrade, equal to 52° F.), and the humidity...
...launch window" (margin of time in which a missile can be launched to fulfill its mission) of a second rocket trying to match the orbit of a vehicle already in space is only a very few minutes. Yet the Russians scored a virtual bull's-eye. "The Russians must have multiple launch pads, because you can't refurbish a pad in 24 hours and then check out another rocket for launching in the same place," said one top U.S. space scientist. The extra pads serve Russia well in the event that a rocket malfunctions during countdown...