Word: orbitting
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...which is at latitude 28° north. Thus, a rocket fired in Guiana can lift about 24% more payload with the same thrust than one fired at Cape Kennedy. Moreover, Guiana has a 120° stretch of open water north and east of it that is ideal for polar-orbit launchings. As a result, France, forced out of its former space station in the Algerian desert two years ago, is bringing French Guiana into the space age with a $102 million investment in launch pads and their support complexes...
...first it was only a tiny speck in the sky. Then, as Astronaut David Scott peered through the window of Apollo 9's orbiting command module, the speck grew into the most ungainly manned craft ever sent into orbit. Said Scott: "You're the biggest, friendliest, funniest-looking spider I've ever seen." He was talking to the lunar module, known as Spider, and it bore two other astronauts who had earlier left Scott to guide it through space. By flying their ship through orbital maneuvers designed to simulate those to be used by astronauts returning from...
More definitive answers will have to await the four additional Mars probes now planned by NASA. In 1971, during the next close approach of Mars, the U.S. will send two photographic spacecraft into orbit around the planet for at least 90 days each. The orbiters will take a series of pictures showing seasonal changes on Mars, map the entire surface and enable scientists to choose likely looking spots for future landings. High priority will be given to sites with the warmest temperatures and greatest traces of moisture...
Dour Rejection. Sure that he had the answer, Houbolt attended meetings of NASA's moonshot planning group to promote the lunar-orbit-rendezvous (LOR) scheme. His reception was cool. "Your figures lie," shouted one excitable member of the group. "I don't believe a word of it." Wernher von Braun, present at the same meeting, dourly shook his head at Houbolt's proposal and said, "No, that's no good." Recalls Christopher Kraft, director of NASA's manned-flight operations: "When some people first heard of Houbolt's idea, they thought he was nuts...
Embarrassed Silence. One of the hardest to convince was Wernher von Braun. But when he was finally converted to the lunar-orbit-rendezvous technique, he became a formidable advocate. During a visit to Huntsville, President Kennedy stood in embarrassed silence while Von Braun argued heatedly with Presidential Science Adviser Jerome Wiesner, the last important holdout against LOR. Pressed for a final decision, Kennedy overruled Wiesner in October 1962 and gave NASA permission to proceed with the design and construction of a lunar module...