Word: rocketeers
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Desperate Call. Before the Si-nation General Assembly the President struck hard at what he called "ballistic blackmail": the Soviet Union's rocket-rattling and "brink-of-catastrophe" alarms after the U.S. landing in Lebanon. "In most communities," said President Eisenhower, "it is illegal to cry 'fire' in a crowded assembly. Should it not be considered serious international misconduct to manufacture a general war scare in an effort to achieve local political aims? Pressures such as these will never be successfully practiced against America, but they do create dangers which could affect each and every...
...about to try to send a rocket to the moon. This week or next, the Air Force will try the first of three lunar probes planned for August, September and October. The Army's rocket team will also get two chances. All five probes, billed as more scientific than military, are supposed to be complete by next March under the International Geophysical Year program. Any one of them could turn out to be that celestial coup, a voyage around the moon by a highly instrumented vehicle. But any probe that reaches a great altitude, even if far short...
...pioneer probe vehicle weighs about 60 Ibs., is shaped like a doughnut with a sausage through its middle. If all goes well at the Cape Canaveral launching pad, a three-stage Thor-Able rocket will shoot the probe into space at an initial speed of 23,827 m.p.h. After the third-stage rocket drops off at 200 miles beyond earth, the probe, still pulled by earth, will gradually slow down as it flies for almost three days...
Ground controllers at the Space Technology Laboratory of Thompson Ramo Woolridge Corp. in Inglewood, Calif, will study the flight closely. At the proper instant, an Air Force tracking station in Honolulu will trigger the probe's own rocket, guiding it so that the moon sweeps it in. Then the probe can make a lazy, 50-hour pass around the moon, performing such chores as sending an electric-eye view of the moon's unseen face. Theoretically, the moon could sling the vehicle back to earth in a figure-eight-shaped voyage (TIME, June...
...odds against success are great.They begin on the ground, where the Thor rocket has yet to prove its reliability. The probe should be launched only during the four days of the month when the moon is in the best position for tracking; if the rocket fizzles on the launching pad, another attempt must await the same short period next month. Even if the probe does get off on schedule, the perils of imprecision mount as the vehicle soars closer to the moon. The margin for error at the rendezvous point is about 30 minutes, and the slightest miscalculation...