Word: spacecrafts
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...record that has been verified by the sky-scanning radars of the North American Air Defense Command. While watching for unfriendly bombers and missiles. NORAD's sharp electronic eyes also spot every other high-flying metallic object that comes into range-including research spacecraft. NORAD has counted 273 man-made objects orbiting earth. Some are satellites, living or dead, but most are "garbage": the burned-out rockets, connecting rings, nose covers, and other bits and pieces that are abandoned after accompanying spacecraft into orbit. The oldest of these far-out travelers is Explorer I, launched...
...When the spacecraft passes beyond Earth's atmosphere, its real life begins. The shroud around it falls away; there is no air now to do damage. Gravity has fallen to zero, and frail antennae and solar panels can swing outward, pushed by feeble springs. The spacecraft absorbs sunlight, as a baby breathes air, and electrical energy pulses through its metal circulatory system. It is now a denizen of space...
...unmanned spacecraft such as Mariner must be designed, as a human baby, to cope successively with three different environments. First it must face life on Earth, snuggled by gentle gravitation and sheltered by the atmosphere. So careful are its guardians to keep it clean and uncontaminated, they even dress like medical men and work in an antiseptic, hospital-like atmosphere. While the spacecraft resists corrosion from water vapor and the sea-salted air of Cape Canaveral, anxious humans are always around to protect it; it gets what energy it needs through a bundle of wires called an umbilical cable. This...
Then comes the crisis of launching. For a few violent minutes, the spacecraft, folded into the nose of its boost vehicle, must withstand an enormous increase of gravity due to acceleration. It is shaken by fierce vibration as heat sears through the shroud that protects it from racing air. Many spacecraft have died during launch, just as human babies sometimes die during delivery...
...that it emits. A dab of paint (if it stays in place) can spell the difference between cold and hot. So can a shiny part that reflects sunlight to a light-absorbent part. Keeping all parts at proper temperatures is one of the hardest jobs in designing a viable spacecraft...