Word: retrorocket
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Orbiter is scheduled to complete the tedious transmission of its pictures by Dec. 10. Shortly afterward, having carried out a practically perfect mission, it will be ordered to fire its retrorocket, drop out of orbit and plunge to destruction on the moon below...
...trajec tory toward the moon, Orbiter 2 briefly lost and then regained its navigational lock on its guiding star Canopus; other wise it was not bothered by glitches. As it sped toward the moon 93 hours later, some 2,770 miles above the lunar sur face, Orbiter's retrorocket fired, slowing the craft enough for lunar gravity to draw it into an elliptical orbit...
Dipping to within 112 miles of the moon at its perilune, or closest ap proach, and swinging out to 1,145 miles at its apilune, or farthermost distance, Orbiter will remain "parked" in high or bit until late this week. Another blast of its retrorocket will then place it in an orbit that will come within 28 miles of the moon. Only then will its cameras go into action to shoot medium-and high-resolution landing site pictures...
...craft's landing radar system to check the effect of failing batteries on its operation, then they opened the vents on the liquid helium tanks to test the system that pressurizes Surveyor's rocket fuel. In a last effort, they fired the spacecraft's big retrorocket while it was still 70,000 miles from the moon. The spin rate slowed, but not nearly enough. Then, while the retrorocket was firing, all contact was lost with the ill-fated lunar voyager...
...eliminate the fuzziness of its high-resolution camera shots (TIME, Aug. 26). Acting after a suggestion from Eastman Kodak technicians that the camera might begin returning clear pictures of possible astronaut landing sites if it were operated from an altitude of 25 miles, they fired Orbiter's retrorocket for three seconds, reducing the low point of its orbit from 30.4 to 25.1 miles, and got it into position for more photography...