Word: skylab
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Half a world away, the American space scientists who had sent Skylab aloft six years ago were calling themselves lucky, too. Although the 77.5-ton craft presumably broke into some 500 pieces, including two weighing about two tons each, there were no reports of anyone's being hurt. That was mainly because Skylab, pretty much on its own, had re-entered the earth's atmosphere while on an orbit that carried the craft over Canada, Maine, and the Atlantic and Indian oceans, posing minimal danger to the world's most populated areas. Despite months of meticulous planning...
...fireworks were almost as spectacular over Perth. At the airport, Captain Ken Fox and First Officer Lyndsay Walker were walking toward the jet they were to fly out as soon as Skylab was safely down. The sight overwhelmed them with imagery. Said Walker: "It was like Tinker Bell waving a magic wand. Like a fire sprinkler with sparks whirling everywhere." Said Fox: "It was as though someone had painted the heavens with a wide brush. There were hundreds of flashes...
There was, nevertheless, plenty of suspense as Skylab slipped ever closer to its doom. The craft was monitored by the worldwide network of NASA and NORAD's space-tracking stations. From NORAD'S underground headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo., calculations about the craft's flight were transmitted to the Skylab Control Center at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center near Houston. There Charles Harlan, the Skylab flight director, estimated the vehicle's probable reentry point, and the possible dangers. He, in turn, was responsible for advising the Skylab Coordination Center at NASA headquarters in Washington whether...
...Houston center, Skylab's final orbit (No. 34,981) looked ideal to Harlan, since it was over the ocean and sparsely populated areas. But one big problem soon emerged: the experts' best guesses as to where the satellite was first likely to re-enter the atmosphere were slightly wrong. Instead of over the middle Atlantic, as expected, Skylab could begin breaking up over Canada, endangering the Montreal area and parts of Maine. Harlan got permission from Washington to cause Skylab to tumble in space, which would delay its impact with earth by about 30 minutes...
...crucial command could be given only during the three minutes that Skylab was within radio range of NASA's tracking station in Santiago, Chile. The coded words were phoned by Houston Flight Controller Cindy Major, 27, to the Santiago center. "Load mark," she said, "one, zero, six, two." The order caused Skylab's adjusting jets to fire briefly, propelling the craft into the wobbling motion. Said Harlan: "We shot our last...