Word: skylab
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...years before Columbia 's mission, earth orbit had been an exclusive Soviet preserve. Not a single U.S. astronaut flew in space during that period, while Soviet cosmonauts set one orbital endurance mark after another, finally reaching 185 days, more than twice the duration of America's longest Skylab mission. Most of this time was spent aboard a single Soviet spacecraft, a remarkable 20-ton mobile home in the sky called Salyut...
...left tape over the latch of a rear door, the night watchman might never have discovered the caper and Congress might never have investigated and the White House tape system might never have been revealed and Richard Nixon might never have resigned.) Luck was the invisible hand that prompted Skylab to scatter its debris over Western Australia, not rush-hour Manhattan. Even transcendently foresighted NASA might admit that the space shuttle's flawless flight last week involved some luck. The luck of the universe (by one new theory) once banged an immense asteroid into the earth, raising a dust...
...Slayton and his NASA coileagues answered the pointed questions, calmly assuring an Australian journalist that Columbia's external fuel tank would not crash and burn outside of Perth, like Skylab two years ago, and responding to a New York journalist by saying. "We are very confident in the crew's training and in the overwhelming likelihood for success...
Some people loudly object to NASA and the shuttle, saying the money should be spent elsewhere. From the beginning of the manned space program in the late '50s until the end of Project Skylab in 1979, NASA spent approximately $60 billion. This sounds like a lot until one considers that today $60 billion would last four months in the Department of Health and Human Services...
...they are. Though Salyut 6 may be smaller and more primitive than Skylab, which tumbled back to earth last year, the samovar-shaped space station has performed impressively. Launched three years ago, it weighs 20 tons, has as much room as a small dacha (the amenities: a shower, 20 view ports, sleeping facilities for four), and has been occupied for 578 days, a little more than half its time aloft. The Soviets, using their new breed of Progress spacecraft-small, automated single-shot ferry ships-have repeatedly refueled and re-equipped Salyut, with a total overhaul of its inventory...