Word: rocketted
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...there was a tiny Balkan country called Syldavia. When uranium was accidentally discovered in the Zmyhlpathian Mountains, the normally peaceful Syldavians embarked upon an ambitious nuclear energy program, protected by a sinister counter-espionage organization known only by the acronym ZEPO. Work began on a top-secret nuclear powered rocket, capable of sending a heavy payload out of the earth's atmosphere. On a still summer evening, the Syldavians surprised the world by launching the X-FLR6 on a mysterious course for outer space...
...story sounds less and less like a CNN news brief once it's revealed that the rocket is actually bound for the moon, manned by a doddering old scientist, an alcoholic sailor, a teenage reporter named Tintin and his cockerspaniel, Snowy. No need to stop the presses--it's only the premise for Destination Moon (1959), a Sputnik-era comic book by the Belgian illustrator Herge. Tintin and his two human companions, Captain Haddock and Professor Calculus, eventually touch the surface of the moon, romp about in orange space suits and endure who-knows-how-many plots to steal...
...American rocketry up to it? Earlier this week, and for the third time in a month, a U.S. rocket failed to lift its satellite payload into the proper orbit. On Tuesday, the second-stage boosters failed on a Boeing-made Delta III; in April, two Lockheed Martin Titan IVs fell short of their target orbits. The mission cost of the latest Delta failure, an Orion communication satellite that wound up in a lopsided orbit, was $230 million. That is the kind of money satellite companies don?t generally like to see blast off into nothing...
...Quickly, however, is the operative word. "The rocket launch market is one in which there are a number of options," says Kluger. "The heat is on both companies to find the root of the problem." Otherwise, each could see customers drift off to competitors such as the European Ariane rocket...
...more on the Rocket eBook, go to www.nuvomedia.com Any questions for Quittner? E-mail him at jquit@well.com