Word: spacecrafts
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NASA is forging ahead with its plans for the first manned test flight of the Apollo spacecraft on Oct. 11. But a De cember mission, in which astronauts were to have rendezvoused and docked their Apollo command ship with an LM, has been pushed back until February by problems in the Grumman-built module. In place of the LM flight, a manned Apollo flight has now been scheduled for December, the first to be powered by the mighty Saturn 5 rocket...
Because planetary exploration "is no longer a primitive and risky art," the scientists say, the accepted practice of launching two spacecraft to accomplish the same mission, and the construction of a third duplicate craft as a "backup," in the event of twin failure, is largely unnecessary. They recommend, however, that NASA proceed with the only planetary flight now funded and scheduled-a photographic flyby of Mars in 1969 by two Mariner spacecraft. The flights would not be redundant, the report notes, because each Mariner is scheduled to photograph a different area of the Martian surface...
...Preferred. Despite the tight budget squeeze, the space panel stresses the importance of exploratory space flights to Mars and Venus each time the earth's neighbors are in a favorable position-about five or six times a decade. But instead of using complex and expensive Mariner or Voyager spacecraft for these flights, the scientists recommended the older and more economical Pioneer-type craft first launched in 1958. They are smaller than the Mariners and spin at 60 r.p.m., but can be crammed full of sophisticated new instruments. Placed into orbit around the planets, the little craft could return detailed...
...planets will be positioned so that a Mariner flying past Venus will be whipped by Venusian gravity into a trajectory that will carry it close to Mercury, affording man his first glimpse of the sun's nearest neighbor. And in 1977 and 1978, planetary positions will enable a spacecraft flying by Jupiter to take a gravity-boosted "grand tour" that will also take it on past Saturn, Uranus and Neptune...
...workings of the sun. Eventually, study of these X-ray outbursts may provide a better understanding of the cause of solar-magnetic disturbances and help scientists to forecast flares. Such early warnings could be vital to astronauts exploring the surface of the moon. Unless they take cover in their spacecraft before a hail of particles arrives from the sun, the explorers could receive a deadly dose of radiation...