Word: sheparded
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...robots like Lunokhod 1 -still alive and moving after eight weeks on the moon-may eventually achieve some of the goals of manned flight at a fraction of the cost and with none of the risks to life. Thus, as it prepares to launch Apollo 14 and Astronauts Alan Shepard, Stu Roosa and Edgar Mitchell on man's fourth mission to the moon, NASA is keenly aware that the future of the manned space program may well be riding on the outcome of that shot. A disaster-or a near disaster like Apollo 13's aborted mission last...
...swoops downward, the moon ship Antares (named for the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius) will travel at a slightly flatter trajectory than in the past, letting Astronauts Shepard and Mitchell keep a steadier fix on their target. Although the landing will still be essentially under computer direction, Shepard will probably take over the vertical controls at an altitude of 300 ft. The actual touchdown, in a flat region between small features called Triplet and Doublet craters, should take place at 4:16 a.m. E.S.T. Friday...
...Shepard and Mitchell plan to spend 331 hours on the moon, including 9 hours or more in the lunar outdoors. Many of their activities should be visible back on earth. As Shepard climbs down from the lunar module, he will pull a cord to open up an exterior equipment bay, thereby switching on a color TV camera, which will later be carried around to record the astronauts' work. For insurance against an Apollo 12-type television breakdown, a black-and-white camera has been provided as a spare. Shepard, who will be recognizable by red arm and leg bands...
...Saturday, at an unmercifully early hour for most Americans (5:50 a.m. E.S.T.), Shepard and Mitchell are scheduled to emerge for their second EVA and load up their new collapsible two-wheeled lunar handcart with cameras, hand tools, shovel and sampling cores. Then they will begin their major geological traverse: a rock-collecting hike up the side of 400-ft.-high Cone Crater, nearly a mile away. Although the two lunar mountaineers will not descend into the crater itself, they will conduct a kind of rock festival on its rim: they will chip stone from large boulders and roll some...
...tightening up is also affecting the lives of the astronauts on earth. Ever since T-minus-21, or three weeks before liftoff, Shepard and his two crewmates have been kept in relative isolation at Cape Kennedy. Only people absolutely essential to their mission have been allowed to come in contact with them (only exception: their wives). Others, such as NASA scientists, must brief them from behind glass partitions in their sealed-off crew quarters. With the quarantine, NASA hopes to avert another Apollo 13-type measles crisis, which nearly caused a last-minute cancellation of the mission after...