Word: spacecrafts
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...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...
...three-part hatch that took 90 sec. to open, Apollo 7 has a single outward-swinging hatch that can be opened in 10 sec. To snuff out any fire that might start, there is now an emergency venting system that can reduce cabin pressure in seconds. And while the spacecraft is on the pad, a mixture of 60% oxygen and 40% nitrogen has been substituted for the 100% oxygen of flight, further reducing the danger of fire...
...paying a price for safety," says Flight Director Glynn Lunney. "The spacesuits are bulkier, the Fiberglas itches like hell, and the seat belts are difficult to cinch down because they are so stiff. But you are seeing a spacecraft several hundred percent improved." Apollo's new safety devices, and a string of successful shots during the past year, have partially restored NASA's confidence. Four unmanned Apollo spacecraft have now flown without serious mishap, two of them atop the mighty rocket Saturn...
...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 orbit into a trajectory that will return it to earth...
Near the moon, the spacecraft will be braked enough to be pulled into a 60-mile-high lunar orbit. It will make ten 2-hr. circuits while the astronauts shoot movie and still pictures of the lunar surface below. Then Apollo 8 will return to earth, using re-entry techniques tested last April during the unmanned flight of Apollo...