Word: spacecrafts
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...solar system, comets were widely viewed as omens of disaster. Astronomers now look upon them as primordial chunks of matter that offer clues to the solar system's formation. The budget-conscious U.S. has bowed out of the race to intercept Halley's comet with a robot spacecraft, thus leaving the field to the Soviets, Western Europeans and Japanese. But NASA plans a relatively cheap ($2 million) alternative: diverting an unmanned ship already in orbit for an inspection of a comet called Giacobini-Zinner, which will appear a few months ahead of its famous...
...hero of the Canadian episode was a Soviet satellite named, in Moscow's prosaic nomenclature, Cosmos 1,383. Launched last June, it was the first spacecraft in the Soviet COSPAS (an acronym for cooperation in space) series. Under discussion since 1975, when Soviet-American cooperation in space was at its apogee with the Apollo-Soyuz linkup, the SARSAT idea is virtually the last of the joint programs that have survived the current chill between Washington and Moscow. One reason: it requires no transfers of hardware or technology. The only tools the satellites have in common is their electronic "language...
Located in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains outside Los Angeles, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (2,700 scientists and engineers) is famed throughout the world and perhaps beyond. Since the 1958 launch of Explorer I, the first U.S. satellite, it has sent some 40 spacecraft soaring into the cosmos. The J.P.L.'s sophisticated machines, operating on complex instructions stored in silicon brains, have explored every member of the sun's family of planets, from inner-most Mercury to the remote giant Saturn. Even now a J.P.L. robot is speeding toward Uranus, 1.7 billion miles away...
...space shuttle Columbia streaks around the planet during its fourth successful flight, scientists and engineers at the nearby Center for Astrophysics (CFA) are anxiously looking several years into the future, when the reusable spacecraft is expected to operate for scientific purposes...
...example, the Apollo moon shot in July 1969 relied on computers at practically every stage of the operation. Before taking off, the astronauts used computerized simulations of the flight. The spacecraft was guided by a computer, which stored information about the gravitational fields of the sun and moon, and calculated the craft's position, speed and altitude. This computer, which determined the engines to be fired, and when, and for how long, took part of its own information from another computer on the ground. As the Apollo neared the moon, a computer triggered the firing of a descent rocket...