Word: rocketeer
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Richard O. Covey, 42, pilot. "If I thought we were the only five guys in the whole world willing to fly Discovery, it would be different. But I'm in an office of people who are hungry to go sit on that rocket." Covey's sentiment amply reflects his gung-ho attitude about NASA's return to space. Covey rose to the rank of colonel after graduating from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1968 and studying aeronautics and astronautics at Purdue University. He flew 339 combat missions in Viet Nam, then became an Air Force weapons-system test pilot...
...millions of other Americans clustered around TV sets, the tension was palpable. As the countdown clock flashed out the number of seconds until lift-off, the eyes of an entire nation focused on Launch Pad 39-B and the gleaming white shuttle Discovery, flanked by its two solid rocket boosters and clinging to the side of the giant, rust- colored external fuel tank. In the minds of many, however, another vision intruded: the hellish yellow-orange burst in the middle of a Y-shaped cloud that 32 months earlier had marked the destruction of the shuttle Challenger...
...exactly 11:32 a.m. last Monday, bathers at Israel's Palmachim Beach heard a sudden roar and watched in awe as a white rocket streaked into the sky. They were witness to the launching of Israel's first space satellite, which made the country only the eighth (after the Soviet Union, the U.S., France, Japan, China, Britain and India) to possess a rocket powerful enough to put a satellite into orbit. That capability, revealed by TIME in August, offers impressive evidence that Israel can launch missiles and hit targets in most Arab countries...
Some television viewers reported what theythought was an errant flame shooting from the leftbooster rocket about 90 seconds after lift-offyesterday. Officials said an analysis revealed aharmless phenomenon that causes flame from theexhaust to "climb" up the side of the rocket...
...with a booster rocket being readied for a twin of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite the Discovery crew is to launch six hours after liftoff. A cut on a small sealing O-ring on the booster rocket, destined for flight next February, was found to have a tiny cut -- apparently caused by a metal burr...