Word: saturns
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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AFTER five months of relative somnolence, Cape Kennedy was once more a scene of feverish activity. All attention last week was focused on launch pad 39A, where the Apollo 13 spacecraft rested atop a huge Saturn 5 rocket, ready to carry U.S. astronauts to their third landing on the moon. As the long countdown began, there was noticeably less excitement than had accompanied previous moon missions; the complex Apollo launchings have already become almost routine...
...precaution, one of Apollo's three fuel cells has been placed in a separate circuit, lessening the possibility of complete loss of electrical power in the event of an accident. At launch time, the world may get its best live look yet at the flaming ascent of a Saturn rocket; NASA has mounted a new, heat-resistant color TV camera directly on the umbilical tower...
More than jobs will be lost. After delivery of the last of the 15 Saturn 5s already purchased, NASA plans to suspend production of the mighty rockets. Seven of the eight remaining Saturns will be used for lunar landings, spaced six (instead of four) months apart. The last scheduled mission-Apollo 20-will be scrapped altogether and its rocket used in 1972 to launch an earth-orbiting, three-man space station. Unmanned flights will also feel the squeeze. Project Viking, the long-awaited mission that will land two life-detecting probes on Mars, has been postponed two years, from...