Word: spacecrafts
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...technicians who insured the safe and accurate launching of our manned spacecraft...
Though unmanned spacecraft have already landed on the moon, photographed Mars and crashed onto Venus, the more distant planets of the solar system are still beyond the practical grasp of man. None of the rockets now used in either the U.S. or Russian space programs are powerful enough to reach them. Even the huge and yet-unproven Saturn 5, which will carry men to the moon, would require an additional stage to send only a tiny payload on one-way trips, and would require six years to reach Saturn, 16 years to Uranus and 30.7 years to Neptune...
Setting out his thesis in the current issue of Astronautics and Aeronautics, Aeronautical Engineer Homer Stewart suggests that the gravity of other planets represents a still-untapped source of energy for long-range space flights. Jupiter's gravity, for example, would exert a tremendous pull on a passing spacecraft, accelerating it greatly and deflecting its course. Thus Jovian gravity could be used, in effect, to gain both thrust and a mid-course correction without the expenditure of fuel. Space scientists, like expert billiard players, can precisely determine the amount of acceleration and degree of deflection by careful control...
...test their theory, Rocket Research scientists mixed together appropriate portions of human feces, hair and nail clippings, paper towels, sponges, detergent, and the carbon that is produced by spacecraft atmospheric-regeneration systems (because it will probably be recycled for drinking water, urine was not included). They then blended their repulsive mixture with powdered metal and a solid oxidizer, producing a black, slimy, globlike but surprisingly odorless substance that was dignified with the name MONEX W. Ground-tested in a rocket engine, it ignited quickly, burned smoothly with a bright orange flame, and produced ample thrust. The successful demonstration has just...
That fear now seems to have been exaggerated. Recent NASA tests at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base showed that all orbiting spacecraft carry a built-in fire fighter: weightlessness...