Word: spacecrafts
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...What a helluva bore," yawned a controller at Houston's Manned Spacecraft Center as Astronauts Frank Borman and James Lovell monotonously orbited the earth last week. By week's end, as Gemini 7 completed its seventh uneventful day in space, the flight had indeed escaped the spine-tingling crises that enlivened-and plagued-earlier shots. But the ennui in Houston and elsewhere in the U.S. was a high accolade. It demonstrated that flawless performance has become commonplace, that near-perfect timing, preparation and execution of Gemini flights have become routine...
Handel, Glinka and Dvorak. Against this soothing background, Astronaut Lovell was allowed to strip off his space suit and fly in his underwear. He thus became the first U.S. astronaut to fly without a pressurized suit, which affords the only protection against a sudden, accidental decompression of the Gemini spacecraft...
...Bugs. To rid Voyager of its terrestrial bugs, contractors will be required to build spacecraft parts in "clean" rooms like those where many delicate instruments are now produced. Final assembly will take place in an ultraclean room, where living contamination will be reduced to as little as a thousandth of what is allowed in clean rooms. At the same time, all of Voyager's exposed surfaces will be decontaminated with ethylene oxide, a colorless gas that is deadly to microorganisms. Finally, the spacecraft will be placed in an airtight, teacup-shaped canister and baked in a giant oven...
...Chances. Despite the inconvenience and expense-and the ever-present danger that Voyager's reliability might be impaired-NASA has no doubts about the ultimate value of its spacecraft-sterilization program. Says Associate Administrator Homer E. Newell: "Successful biological exploration of the planets is a goal that supersedes in importance any program, flight or schedule that would endanger the eventual acquisition of knowledge of extraterrestrial life...
Having effectively sterilized Voyager, scientists will take no chances on the spacecraft's becoming recontaminated by stray microorganisms as it rockets upward through the earth's atmosphere. The spacecraft will still be in its sealed canister when it is mounted on its launching rocket and blasted aloft. Only when it reaches deep into sterile space will explosive bolts be fired to release the life-free Voyager from its protective envelope and allow it to proceed toward its rendezvous with Mars...