Word: spacecrafts
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...goal set by President Kennedy but aware that time is fast running out, U.S. spacemen will begin their final lunar thrust. Barring last-minute delays, Astronauts Walter Schirra, Walter Cunningham and Donn Eisele will be shot into earth orbit aboard Apollo 7 in the first manned flight of the spacecraft that will eventually carry astronauts to the moon. If Apollo lives up to NASA's expectations during its eleven-day mission, it will clear the way for a possible flight around the moon in December and the landing of astronauts on the lunar surface as early as the spring...
There is much to be done, in the short time that is left. But an impressive amount has already been accomplished. Before they are ready to test the performance of their complex craft in space, astronauts put in long months of practice in equally complicated machines at the Manned Spacecraft Center near Houston (see color pages). There, in computer-operated simulators, replicas of spacecraft interiors, they go through complete missions. The simulators move at a touch of the controls, actually vibrate during launch, and present changing views of the earth, moon and stars during their simulated missions. Before they blast...
...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...
Before making a lunar landing, space experts say, the Soviets will probably want to test two techniques that they have not yet attempted: 1) manned rendezvous and docking in space, and 2) an unmanned soft landing on the moon. Unmanned Russian spacecraft have twice rendezvoused and docked auto matically in earth orbit, but the technique would be far more difficult near the moon, 240,000 miles away from terrestrial control stations. And the Russians have yet to demonstrate a soft-landing system as reliable as the one that lowered five U.S. Surveyor spacecraft gently to the lunar surface...
...meanwhile is proceeding with plans to launch the first manned Apollo into earth orbit next week on a ten-day mission to check out spacecraft and ground control systems. If all goes well, the following Apollo flight, scheduled for late December, may take three astronauts for as many as ten orbits around the moon before returning them to earth...