Word: seconds
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...from view. But NASA officials, buoyed by a long string of space successes, were undaunted by the dangerous omens. The order was given to proceed. More reliable than any commuter train, the 11:22 moon rocket departed from Cape Kennedy. It was on schedule to the split second...
Mysterious Surge. The danger lasted for only a fraction of a second. As soon as the A.C. circuits failed, three batteries delivering direct current took over automatically, bringing the Apollo spacecraft's vital systems back to life. Meanwhile, the mighty Saturn rocket was blasting away unaffected, lifting the astronauts toward orbit. After quickly resetting circuit breakers that had been sprung by a mysterious surge of current, the astronauts managed to restore A.C. power. "We're weeding out our problems here," Conrad reported calmly. "I'm not sure we didn't get hit by lightning." Neither were...
Despite the brief blackout, the spacecraft hurtled into a nearly perfect 118-mile-high earth orbit. By testing the spacecraft's navigational and guidance computers, the astronauts confirmed that the instruments had been left unscathed by the power surge. Halfway through the second revolution, after ground controllers were assured that Apollo was in perfect shape, Conrad fired the third stage S-4B rocket. The 51-minute burn increased the spacecraft's speed to 24,100 m.p.h., lifted it from orbit and sent it on its way to the moon. Said Conrad: "Everything is tickety...
...investment banker and a graduate of Princeton University who displays no trace of Main Line reserve. He is an inveterate joke teller, likes to whistle through the gap between his front teeth and listens for hours to country-and-Western music. At 5 ft. 64 in. he is the second shortest of the astronauts. A pilot since the age of 14, he is still fascinated with flying, particularly acrobatics (he was stunting in a jet over Florida only two days before the launch). In 1966, he commanded a three-day Gemini flight that soared to a then record altitude...
...hooked on flying for good. Intensely competitive, he does not relish the idea of remaining behind in the command module while his two crew mates step on the surface of the moon but seems to have cheerfully resigned himself to his assignment (''My responsibility is second only to Pete's"). He and his wife have more children than any other astronaut family: four boys and two girls...