Word: retrorocket
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Strayed Capsule. In the Discoverer series, the Air Force's purpose is to fire a satellite into polar orbit, then bring it back by firing a retrorocket that detaches a recovery capsule, slows it and makes it dive into the atmosphere south of Hawaii. Airplanes towing trapezelike devices are to try to catch the parachuting capsule before it hits the water. On Aug. 14 the retrorocket of Discoverer V was fired by a ground signal, but the planes circled in vain. The capsule, an object 33 in. in diameter and weighing just over 300 Ibs., had disappeared...
Pinpoint. Discoverer II, cruising on its elliptical pole-to-pole course at 17,000 m.p.h. (ranging from 220 miles to 152 miles from the earth), was to have launched its capsule over the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii on its 17th orbit. A retrorocket would slow it down to force its entry into the scorching atmosphere. Then an orange parachute (lined with aluminum for radar reflection) would pop at a preset speed, drop it gently toward the water. Eight Air Force C-119 flying boxcars, trailing 15-ft. by 30-ft. nylon harnesses, were to try snagging the package before...
...bring the satellite back to earth at a desired place and time, designers expect to employ a retrorocket, which will be fired to reduce its speed at the chosen moment and spot. A parachute will slow it further, and a radio will shout an S O S. Finding the satellite with its undeveloped films or its beat-up "primate" should not be much harder than finding a missile's nose cone...
...journey a scanning device will pick up the moon's sunlit face, fix its position, and an artificial brain will figure out what to do next. It can light a small steering rocket to correct the course. If a landing on the moon is scheduled, a backward-acting retrorocket can be fired to reduce speed and impact. A different use of the two control rockets will make the vehicle orbit around the moon to report the scenery on its unknown far side...
...Raborn, "as the comb in your pocket"). Even so, solids presented a big problem: how to cut off burning with the split-second precision necessary if the missile is to land on target. (Liquid oxygen can be shut off mechanically with a valve.) The solution: a design called a retrorocket that automatically blasts portholes in the fuel chamber, drops the pressure, effectively cuts off the power...