Word: space
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...proud claim to being the cradle of U.S. rocketry. Among other things, J.P.L. designed and produced the first successful U.S. high-altitude sounding rocket (the WAC Corporal in 1945), developed the first successful solid-fuel propellant, devised and built the guidance systems that have guided satellites into space, and the instruments that telemeter back what they find. Practically every U.S. missile program has called for its advice. Today it is run by Caltech as the prime deep-space laboratory of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, with 2,700 employees working in more than no buildings...
...sticky liquid that could be poured, solidified, then burned at a controllable rate. It worked, and is now the basis for the Navy's Polaris and all other solid-fuel U.S. rockets. The small company that made it, Thiokol, has become one of the leaders of the new space industry. J.P.L. does not mind; once something developed at the laboratory works satisfactorily, J.P.L. passes on to other things...
...almost useless unless the rocket sends information about its performance, J.P.L. was forced to explore the electronic labyrinth of telemetering. One electronic job led to another, and now J.P.L. products ride in nearly all U.S. satellites, reporting the magnetism, heat and cosmic rays encountered in the unknown reaches of space. Such information has grown so voluminous that J.P.L. has its own computer to interpret it. For tracking space vehicles far out in the solar system, J.P.L. has built a radio telescope 85 ft. in diameter in the Mojave Desert, which can track a vehicle 1,000,000 miles away...
Last year J.P.L. was taken over from the Army by the newly created NASA. J.P.L. still does specific military work, but its main job is basic and applied research to further the U.S. push into space. One laboratory investigates the behavior of fuels, plastics and other materials at temperatures simulating space's icy cold. Long-range planners devise methods to map the far side of the moon. Biggest single project is Vega, the U.S.'s most advanced space vehicle. Expected to fly in about 18 months, the first Vega will use an Atlas D as its first stage...
Such claims have stirred up an angry argument. Ford contends that a rear-engine car tends to oversteer and veer out on curves because the greater part of its weight is in the rear. It has less luggage space-only 15.6 cu. ft. in the Corvair v. 24.5 cu. ft. for the Falcon and 24.9 cu. ft. for the Valiant. (But the Corvair has an optional folding rear seat, for $32.50 extra, that provides another 13.3 cu. ft. of luggage room in the back.) Many engineers insist that a rear engine is not practical on the basis of present knowledge...