Word: space
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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There is much to be done, in the short time that is left. But an impressive amount has already been accomplished. Before they are ready to test the performance of their complex craft in space, astronauts put in long months of practice in equally complicated machines at the Manned Spacecraft Center near Houston (see color pages). There, in computer-operated simulators, replicas of spacecraft interiors, they go through complete missions. The simulators move at a touch of the controls, actually vibrate during launch, and present changing views of the earth, moon and stars during their simulated missions. Before they blast...
...Exit. The tragedy jolted NASA out of the complacency that had built up during the highly successful Mercury and Gemini programs, in which a total of 16 manned craft were sent into space, maneuvered and recovered without serious mishap. In a frenzy of self-doubt, NASA virtually tore up the Apollo program, shifted personnel, and clamped down hard on the procedures and workmanship of North American's Space Division, prime contractors for the Apollo spacecraft...
...astronauts will also at tempt to rendezvous with the burnt-out final stage of their launch rocket, using only a sextant and a telescope for direction finding; the Apollo command module is not equipped with rendezvous radar. During their week-and-a-half space journey, they will start Apollo's large, 20,500-lb.-thrust engine eight times to test its reliability. That engine literally means the difference between life and death. On actual moon missions, it will be used to guide an Apollo spacecraft into orbit around the moon, and, later, to fire the craft out of lunar...
Come February, Astronauts James McDivitt, David Scott and Russell Schweickart are scheduled to zoom into earth orbit aboard Apollo 9, the first complete moon package to be shot into space. In addition to the Saturn 5 rocket and the Apollo command and service modules, the package will include the trouble-plagued lunar module (LM) that is destined, eventually, to land on the moon. The mission will include space walks, rendezvous and docking maneuvers, and the first transfer in space of astronauts between Apollo...
Automatic Spacecraft. Although space officials steadfastly deny that the U.S. is racing with the Russians to land the first men on the moon, all of the planning and practicing has been carried out with one eye on the Soviet space effort. NASA officials-as well as the rest of the world-are uncomfort ably aware of the huge psychological difference between first and second place in the moon race. U.S. space officials first greeted last month's pioneering flight of Russia's Zond 5 with a mixture of admiration, envy and chagrin, certain that it was a prelude...