Word: probe
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...space age, the U.S.S.R. celebrated the anniversary by announcing a far more advanced step into space: a rocket shot that this week sent a 600-lb. instrumented payload hurtling into space on a trajectory calculated to curve around the moon and swing back toward the earth. The moon probe (see SCIENCE) required a rocket thrust of at least 600,000 Ibs., twice the thrust of the U.S.'s most powerful rocket engine. The Soviet feat was all the more embarrassing to the U.S. because U.S. spacemen had been forced to postpone their moon shot, scheduled to soar...
...space jargon would probably substitute "moon probe" for "interplanetary station" (if U.S. space jargon had any right to set the terms) and "trajectory" for "orbit," but the Russians left no doubt this time about what they hoped their bird would do. "The orbit," they said, "will ensure the passage of the station near the moon and its flight around the moon. The station will pass at 10,000 kilometers (6,200-odd miles) from the moon, and after flying around it, will continue its movement to the vicinity of the earth...
Whipping around the moon and returning to the earth is considerably harder than hitting the moon, as Lunik II did. A little too much speed could toss the probe beyond the moon and into an orbit around the sun. Slightly bad aim or timing could make the probe crash into the moon. Even harder is putting an object into a permanent orbit around the moon, but the Russians apparently did not hope to do that-not this time...
...Administration's decision to probe the entire question of rising Dining Hall costs has great merit. By holding a semi-open hearing, the Deans opened the problem for public discussion--but they still held that "some rise in the Board rate seems inevitable, and soon, in any case." Although they held that "some sort of economies" could be effected, they failed to hold out any hope of avoiding yet another hike...
...until the Navy's Vanguard fizzled on the sands of Cape Canaveral were they allowed to show what they could do-and redeemed U.S. prestige by flinging Explorer I into orbit. Since then, J.P.L.'s spinning clusters have launched three successful satellites, including the U.S. moon probe (Pioneer IV, which is now orbiting...