Word: space
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Before they splashed down in the Atlantic 230 miles south of Bermuda, Apollo 7 Astronauts Wally Schirra, Walter Cunningham and Donn Eisele had completed 163 revolutions of the earth, com piled more man-hours in space than all of the manned Russian flights combined...
They conducted scores of experiments, produced the first U.S. live TV shows from space and rendezvoused with their discarded Saturn 4B booster (see color pictures). More important, by checking out Apollo's control, navigation, communications and life-support systems, they confirmed that the craft was completely spaceworthy. If no unexpected difficulties are uncovered as technicians decipher the mountain of data that ac cumulated during the flight, an Apollo 8 crew composed of Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders may be sent into orbit around the moon with in as little as six weeks...
Buoyant Bags. Successful though it was, the mission ended in tension. For several minutes after splashdown, there were fears that an accident at sea had nullified Apollo's triumph in space. After a last voice transmission by Command Pilot Schirra from only 200 feet above the surface, Apollo lapsed into unscheduled silence; recovery helicopters from the aircraft carrier Essex flapped blindly through rainsqualls and fog in a vain search for the spacecraft. Then, Ap suddenly, the helicopters reported that they had picked up Apollo's homing signals. The spacecraft was only a third of a mile from...
Ferried to the Essex by helicopter, the three heavily bearded astronauts walked unsteadily, obviously weary after their long confinement. But NASA doctors reported that despite colds, loss of weight (Schirra 41 Ibs., Cunningham 8, Eisele 10), and muscles weakened by inactivity, the three space travelers were in good health -and in better humor than they had been for most of the week. The irritability that they had displayed during exchanges with ground controllers, said the doctors, was a natural consequence of long confinement, a rather humdrum flight and troublesome head colds. NASA's Paul Haney had another explanation: "Something...
Fogged Windows. The space doctors' worst fear-that the cold-plagued astronauts would suffer ear damage during re-entry-was not realized. As Apollo's cabin pressure was raised from the 5.3 Ibs. per sq. in. maintained during space flight to sea-level pressure of 14.7 p.s.i., the astronauts protected their ears by removing their helmets and performing the "Valsalva maneuver" (named for its inventor, the 18th century Italian anatomist Antonio Valsalva). Holding their noses, closing their mouths and trying vigorously to exhale through their nostrils, they forced air through their clogged Eustachian tubes to keep the pressure...