Word: spacecrafts
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...Zonds were preparatory shots for a manned flight and carried living creatures to test radiation effects near the moon. U.S. scientists suspect that Cosmonaut Georgy Beregovoy successfully tested life-support systems for a manned lunar mission during the earth-orbit flight of Soyuz-3. If so, a Soviet lunar spacecraft may finally be man-rated-ready to carry passengers to the moon in December...
...earth recedes behind them, the astronauts will separate their spacecraft from the S-4B, move about 50 ft. ahead of it, and then turn to face it. During this maneuver, protective panels will be jettisoned from the S-4B, exposing the dummy lunar module (LM) carried in its nose. The astronauts will then simulate docking with the LM-an operation that will be particularly important on the lunar-landing mission next year, when an Apollo spacecraft will dock nose-to-nose with a real LM before taking it into orbit around the moon. Finally, after the astronauts have jockeyed their...
Some 30,000 miles from the lunar surface, Apollo will have slowed to a space-age snail's pace-2,170 m.p.h. At this point, lunar gravity will overcome the earth's diminishing pull, and the spacecraft will begin accelerating once more. Ahead, the moon will loom ever larger in the spacecraft windows. By the time Apollo curves around the western edge of the moon, its speed will have risen to 5,720 m.p.h...
...convinces ground controllers and the astronauts that serious problems have developed, the crew will merely continue in this new course and travel back to earth. But if everything seems all right, Apollo's powerful SPS (service propulsion system) engine will be fired for 246 sec. to slow the spacecraft and allow it to be pulled by the moon into a 70-by 196-mile elliptical lunar orbit. Two revolutions later, a brief 10-sec. burn will change the path to a 70-mi.-high circular orbit. Traveling at 3,640 m.p.h., Apollo will circle the moon once every...
...tenth lunar revolution, the Apollo crew will fire the SPS engine again-this time for 206 sec. -boosting their speed to 6,060 m.p.h., more than enough to break the moon's gravitational hold and start the spacecraft back toward the earth. About 57 hours later, accelerating under the pull of terrestrial gravity, the astronauts will position their craft properly and then jettison the service module. Streaking into the earth's atmosphere at an angle of 6.5° and a velocity of 24,765 m.p.h., the 11,700-lb. command module-all that will remain...