Word: rangers
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...Hammarskjold and his party of 15 climbed aboard the Albertina, a white DC-6 used by the U.N. in the Congo. Hammarskjold's main concern, on takeoff, was ominous: his plane had to cross territory controlled by a marauding Katanga jet fighter known as "The Lone Ranger." The pilot, thought to be Rhodesian or an English-speaking Belgian, had been terrorizing U.N. garrisons since the beginning of the fighting, had even made strafing passes at a press conference given by U.N. Katanga Commander Conor Cruise O'Brien in Elisabethville...
...cliff, Anka was dropped by a speck of sand in his eye and, returning to the fray, was later immobilized by a torn fingernail. "Medic!" someone shouted, and World War II stopped dead in its tracks. Near General Zanuck's yellow camp chair stood a real U.S. Ranger, on hand to give technical advice. "These guys," he said helpfully, "don't have what it takes...
Riding on Atlas-Agena's shoulders was a needle-nosed, 675-lb. assemblage of instruments called Ranger I, whose 19,520 electronic parts were designed to measure cosmic rays, solar radiation and magnetic fields with hitherto unparalleled accuracy. Ranger was not aimed for the moon, but its big exclamation-mark loop would test equipment for a lunar trip that man some day will take...
...seemed well. Separating smoothly from its first stage, the second-stage rocket Agena, with the Ranger still attached, swung into a 100-mile-high parking orbit, coasted with its engine dead. Fourteen minutes after launch, the Agena's engine reignited on schedule to boost its Ranger payload on the long route into space. Then something went wrong. Instead of burning for the scheduled 90 seconds, which would have increased Ranger's speed from 17,400 m.p.h. to the necessary 23,800 m.p.h., Agena cut out too soon. Disconnected below maximum velocity, Ranger coasted up to a mere...
Since Russia achieved the same space feat last February by sending a satellite toward Venus from a similar parking orbit around the earth, U.S. missilemen, still trying to pinpoint last week's Ranger failure, looked for consolation in the near success. At least Ranger's complex instruments were behaving perfectly, and the Atlas-Agena combination had got off to a beautiful start...