Word: rocketing
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NASA's original plan was to launch Galileo from the shuttle in 1982 on a direct, two-year flight to Jupiter. But disputes over the type of rocket most appropriate for the launch delayed the mission for four years. Then, after agreement was reached on the liquid-hydrogen-fueled Centaur rocket, the 1986 Challenger disaster not only shut down the shuttle program for nearly three years but also heightened awareness that the Centaur was too risky for a manned craft--in Van Allen's words, "like carrying a hydrogen bomb, except it's more likely...
...opting for a safer, solid-fuel rocket had its drawbacks too; a rocket of this type small enough to fit into the shuttle's cargo bay would not yield enough power to thrust Galileo into a direct flight to Jupiter. "It took the project a while to invent a new way for Galileo to get to Jupiter," says J.P.L. director Edward Stone, "but there was a sense of 'It can be done...
...SOLUTION WAS TO supplement the rocket's power with three "gravity assists," first from Venus, which Galileo skimmed around in a "crack-the-whip" maneuver that boosted its velocity and flung it back toward Earth, and then from Earth itself, which it swooped by twice, passing less than 200 miles from the ground before finally picking up sufficient speed to make it all the way to Jupiter...
...even matter anymore? I've blasted my way up to Level 6, and I can't figure how to get out. Two dozen higher levels await me. I've slaughtered "hell knights" and revenants and blubbery pink things that resemble bulls on tiptoe. I've armed myself with shotguns, rocket launchers and plasma guns that can kill a zombie faster than you can say Hasta la vista, baby, but still won't get me out of Level...
...DECLARED PRESIDENTIAL candidates today, only Pat Buchanan has the courage to attack the real sacred cows of U.S. politics [COVER STORIES, Nov. 6]. One does not have to be a rocket scientist to see that American jobs were sacrificed on the altars of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in the interests of increasing corporate profits. Nor does one need 20/20 vision to see that the motivating factor for these ill-conceived and damaging agreements was the pervasive and corrupting influence of campaign donations from Big Business. Only Buchanan has aggressively addressed...