Word: spacecraft
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...reported sighting, by Chinese astronomers in 240 B.C. But when this cosmic snowball of ice and dust-with a nucleus between 3 and 6 miles across and a tail millions of miles long-streaks across the sky in 1986, it will be greeted for the first time by five spacecraft. In the vanguard of an international effort to study the comet, the Soviet Union recently launched two 4.5-ton unmanned space probes laden with cameras and sensors. And in an extraordinary show of East-West scientific collaboration, two U.S.-designed comet-dust analyzers are tucked aboard the Soviet vessels. Named...
Vega 1 and 2 will be joined by three other spacecraft. Next January, Japan will launch its MST5 probe, followed in July by the eleven-nation European Space Agency's spacecraft, Giotto, and Japan's second probe, PlanetA, in August. The five craft will be coordinated to analyze the comet from different distances, with the closest probe, Giotto, programmed to come within 300 miles...
Miss Manners would approve of this creature from outer space: before invading earth, he waited to be invited. He is the first extraterrestrial to visit our planet in response to a summons from the Voyager 2 spacecraft, which since 1977 has careered through the heavens carrying recorded greetings in 55 languages and a few alltime Top 40 tunes by such as Bach, Beethoven and Chuck Berry. Problem is, this Starman (Jeff Bridges) didn't R.S.V.P. Without so much as a by-your-leave, he has crash-landed in Wisconsin and now has three days to get to Arizona, where...
...museum also features the ancestor of all video games, "Spacewar! ," developed by MIT students in 1962, and the computer used in the capsule of the Apollo spacecraft...
...cosmonauts have logged a combined total of almost 88,000 hours in space, more than twice that of their American counterparts. The Soviets last year launched 98 spacecraft, while the rest of the world sent up 29 vehicles (22 of those were launched by the U.S.). Western intelligence sources estimate that the U.S.S.R. may spend more than $16 billion annually on its space effort, in contrast to $7 billion...