Word: rockets
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...heart was an inertial-reference package made by Dynamics Corp. of America. Through an intricate system of tiny gyroscopes, it gave Discoverer II a continuous sensing of its motion and attitude in space. When the second-stage rocket separated, the inertial-reference package squirted jets of high-pressure helium out of orifices in the rocket's side, bringing it to a horizontal attitude. Then the rocket motor fired, driving the second stage into an orbit...
...face fairly accurately toward the sun. Both surfaces of the paddles will be covered with a mosaic of cells made of thin sheets of a photoelectric material (probably silicon) that turns sunlight into electricity. The paddles will be folded when the satellite is in the nose of its launching rocket and will snap into position as soon as it is spaceborne. The array of solar batteries is expected to develop as much as 400 watts, about enough to run a small toaster. Most of the energy will be stored in nickel-cadmium batteries. When triggered by a signal from...
...always do. Each man will help design one component of the space capsule: communications system, propulsion, instrumentation, etc. To toughen up for the physical trials and psychological terrors of space, they will spend hours in low-pressure chambers, wind tunnels, human cocktail shakers; they will be jolted on supersonic rocket sleds, flown in balloons and supersonic aircraft and eventually test-rocketed by Army Redstone missiles at 4,000 m.p.h. more than 100 miles from Cape Canaveral down the Atlantic firing range...
...test pilot helped develop a whole family of transonic jets: the Cutlass, the Fury, the Demon. Most recent assignment: test pilot for the new Mach 2 F4H McDonnell fighter. Last week Schirra's son, Marty, 8, chortled to his third-grade classmates: "My Dad is going on a rocket to the moon!" Replied a friend nonchalantly: "Have him bring me back a piece of green cheese...
...difficulties will begin with the rocket launching. The acceleration pressure of 8 g. [eight times gravity's pull] will make breathing difficult. His respiratory muscles will strain to overcome the crushing force, and breathing will become irregular. The heart will double its normal rate. The instruments before his eyes fade from view in a brown haze. The feet and arms are now difficult to move because they are eight times heavier than normal. Consciousness clouds, and for a moment he will wait in heavy, silent oppression. Weightless World. Then his body will become suddenly light, as the rocket burns...