Word: retrorocket
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...blinking consoles are managed by specialists in space dynamics; they report on booster systems, retrofire, flight dynamics and guidance-respectively known in the control room's jargon as "Booster," "Retro," "Fido" and "Guide." Working in concert, they are responsible for propellant tanks, for calculating the exact moment of retrorocket firings, computing maneuver times and keeping track of spacecraft computers and guidance systems...
...must plan realistically for troubles that would be magnified by sheer distance from earth. Should life-support or power systems begin to fail on earth-orbital flights, astronauts are usually within half an hour to three hours of recovery on land or water; a relatively small thrust from a retrorocket can lower their orbit into the atmosphere, where friction provides the additional braking necessary to return them to earth. In the vicinity of the moon, the astronauts might be as long as a three-day journey from home. They could fall victim to minor malfunctions -like a deteriorating oxygen supply...
...fire, hoping to jar the sticky valve shut. The leakage slowed but did not stop. Within an hour, helium pressure had dropped from 5,000 lbs. to 3,000 lbs. per sq. in. Dejectedly, some JPL scientists suggested that it would be best to fire Surveyor's retrorocket immediately, placing the craft in high earth orbit. It would be preferable to have a live spacecraft in orbit, they argued, than a dead one on the surface of the moon...
...action. First they fired Surveyor's vernier engines for 33 seconds to consume more fuel and reduce the craft's landing weight. New instructions were radioed to Surveyor's memory bank and programmed into ground-based computers. As a result, the craft's main retrorocket began firing at a height of 26 miles above the lunar surface, instead of the originally planned 52 miles. It shut off at an altitude of only 4,400 ft., instead of 40,000 ft., after braking Surveyor's 6,000-m.p.h. approach speed to only 67 m.p.h., instead...
...from his EVA suit to power the craft's attitude-control system. Face pressed against the porthole, he aligns his lifeboat with the horizon by firing the attitude-control jets. After sighting a landmark on earth with the reticle marked on the porthole, he aims and fires the retrorocket for 100 seconds, thus braking the lifeboat to a de-orbiting speed of 16,500 m.p.h. Then the retrorocket is jettisoned...