Word: spacecrafts
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Like all new spacecraft, including the U.S. space shuttle Columbia, Ariane has had its problems. Its second trial in May 1980 ended with a mid-air explosion. But since then, it has carried four satellites, two per launch, into high earth orbit. The most recent lift-off came in the predawn darkness on Dec. 20, when Ariane awoke the sleeping jungle with a fusillade of flame and thunder. Last week, in Paris, the eleven-nation European Space Agency (ESA) confirmed what Ariane's customers had been eagerly waiting to hear: that the rocket was ready and able to launch...
When he was asked if he had any misgivings about flying in a used spacecraft, Astronaut Joe Engle, 49, replied unhesitatingly. Of course not, said the veteran Air Force pilot, Columbia had been tested as thoroughly as any aircraft ever flown. Last week Engle had some cause to rue those words. Despite a flawless and spectacular liftoff, the orbiting spacecraft soon fell prey to more of the technical afflictions that have plagued the $10 billion shuttle program from its very beginning. Two hours after the shuttle rode its pillar of fire into the Florida skies, alarm lights flashed...
Space officials tried to put the best possible face on Columbia's latest troubles, which began two weeks ago when clogged oil filters caused an abrupt postponement of the flight. After all, just getting a used spacecraft into orbit was a notable first. The Soviets, who have been hurtling cosmonauts into space with awesome regularity, have yet to attempt such a feat. U.S. space officials emphasized that all of Columbia's first four missions are in fact test flights. Their purpose is to turn up just such "glitches" as Columbia's problems with its electrical system, before...
Despite a malfunction that cut its mission in half, scientists at NASA and Harvard say last week's flight of the space shuttle Columbia--the first spacecraft to be re-used--was a success, and that data from on-board experiments will reveal valuable information about the earth's natural resources...
Much of their information comes from an unmanned Pioneer spacecraft. Since it began orbiting Venus three years ago, it has studied the planet's weather by photographing changing cloud patterns and lifted its veil with a radar beacon, mapping 93% of Venus' shrouded surface. Though the planet has continent-size land masses topped by a mountain a mile higher than Everest, it does not seem to be rent by the earth's major mountain builder: continental drift. Rather, the key tectonic process appears to be volcanism, accompanied by lightning, flows of lava and an otherworldly version...