Word: pads
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...landing of the Salyut 7 descent module last week took place only days before the successful launch of the 13th U.S. shuttle mission. Challenger soared off its pad at Kennedy Space Center carrying a record seven passengers. Among its crew are two women: Kathryn Sullivan, who is scheduled this week to become the first American woman to walk in space, and Sally Ride, the first U.S. female astronaut. Also aboard is Marc Garneau, the first Canadian astronaut, an engineer who will study the damage done to Canadian lakes by acid rain. Within hours after the launch, Ride commanded the shuttle...
...launching pad for this new research focus is the new theory that, contrary is previous thought, large-scale extinction have periodically wiped out all forms of life at various stages in the earth's life. In this thinking, the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago was not an isolated case in history, but one of several waves of extinctions...
...went. Under the point system, each inch in the vault is worth about 6 points, making it a disproportionately weighted event. So with Hingsen grounded, Thompson rose for the kill. When he cleared 16 ft. 4¾ in., he delightedly executed a back flip on the pink landing pad. No points were awarded for the extracurricular flip, but Thompson landed with a cushy lead of 152 points...
...have an abort." Nor was that the worst of it. As the astronauts lay strapped in their seats, awaiting instructions, hydrogen gas gathering in the ship's main-engine area burst into flames below them, shooting a tiny inferno through the engine pit. Sprinklers on the launch pad immediately flooded the pit with several thousand gallons of water, dousing the blaze in less than five minutes. Half an hour later, led by Judy Resnik, 35, who was scheduled to be the second American woman in space, the six astronauts emerged from the craft, some looking grim and weary, others...
...scrubbed mission may be the biggest snafu in NASA'S glitch-plagued shuttle program. Never before has a countdown been interrupted after a main engine was ignited. Once engines are sparked and combustible materials released, the likelihood of a launch-pad tragedy escalates dramatically. As it turns out, experts who studied high-speed film of Discovery's firing taken right before shutdown believe that something was burning that should not have been. Normally, the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxgygen that combine in the engine nozzles to fuel the shuttle at takeoff produce billows of clean white steam...