Word: spacecrafts
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...tone was laconic and the meaning obscured by space-age jargon, but the message from the Houston ground controller was unmistakably clear to the astronauts "You are go for TLI ' All of the systems aboard their spacecraft and the attached S-4B rocket were operating perfectly, and nothing stood in the way of making the final thrust. As Apollo passed over Hawaii on its second orbit of the earth, the astronauts fired the S-4B engine It was a perfect burn The spacecraft increased its velocity from 17,400 to 24,200 m p h. The speed was enough...
...hadn't had other manned flights before," said Kennedy Space Center Director Kurt Debus, "the excitement, the stress would be unendurable. To go to the moon is symbolic of mans leaving earth, of opening vast new frontiers." The impending flight inspired Robert Gilruth, director of the Manned Spacecraft Center, to deliver a rhapsodic Christmas message to the centers 4,500 employees: "Perhaps the ancient mariners had the same feeling of anticipation as they set sail through the Straits of Gibraltar past the limits of the known world...
...like the men who first set out to cross continents on foot and oceans in frail ships, the astronauts seemed undaunted by the danger and challenged by the unknown. "We've studied the mission," said Spacecraft Commander Borman, "and we've studied the vehicle. We have faith in the guys who are helping us on the ground, and we have faith in the guys who built the machines. We wouldn't go if we didn't think the mission was worth the risks...
...Observatory, which began probing the heavens with eleven telescopes while circling the earth in a 480-mile-high orbit-well above the confining atmosphere. Unfolding its solar panels, the OAO obediently performed operations that assured ground controllers that it was in good working order. Then the 4,400-lb. spacecraft turned to its first assignment. Rolling slowly in space, it sought out two reference stars and unerringly swung its telescopes toward a bright Southern Hemisphere star named Miaplacidus...
...December 1965, Borman and Lovell were pilots of Gemini 7 on man's longest space flight - a 3301-hours' orbital mission that included the history-making rendezvous with Gemini 6. Both took their long confinement in the cramped spacecraft with equanimity and quiet humor, and displayed competence and stability that helped win them their Apollo 8 assignments. Eleven months later, Lovell .and Edwin Aldrin were the crew on the 941-hour flight of Gemini 12, the last U.S. manned flight before Apollo 7. Between them, Lovell and Borman have a total of 7551 hours in space, about...