Word: spacecrafts
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...When the spacecraft passes beyond Earth's atmosphere, its real life begins. The shroud around it falls away; there is no air now to do damage. Gravity has fallen to zero, and frail antennae and solar panels can swing outward, pushed by feeble springs. The spacecraft absorbs sunlight, as a baby breathes air, and electrical energy pulses through its metal circulatory system. It is now a denizen of space...
...unmanned spacecraft such as Mariner must be designed, as a human baby, to cope successively with three different environments. First it must face life on Earth, snuggled by gentle gravitation and sheltered by the atmosphere. So careful are its guardians to keep it clean and uncontaminated, they even dress like medical men and work in an antiseptic, hospital-like atmosphere. While the spacecraft resists corrosion from water vapor and the sea-salted air of Cape Canaveral, anxious humans are always around to protect it; it gets what energy it needs through a bundle of wires called an umbilical cable. This...
Then comes the crisis of launching. For a few violent minutes, the spacecraft, folded into the nose of its boost vehicle, must withstand an enormous increase of gravity due to acceleration. It is shaken by fierce vibration as heat sears through the shroud that protects it from racing air. Many spacecraft have died during launch, just as human babies sometimes die during delivery...
...that it emits. A dab of paint (if it stays in place) can spell the difference between cold and hot. So can a shiny part that reflects sunlight to a light-absorbent part. Keeping all parts at proper temperatures is one of the hardest jobs in designing a viable spacecraft...
...abandoned on the newer, smaller satellite got so emotional that he was almost fired to keep the peace. Pickering never lost his composure. "I had to establish," he says in measured tones, "that the project could get the necessary support from the laboratory, and that we could redesign the spacecraft down to what Atlas-Agena could carry. We finally decided that we could go gung-ho for Venus. When all this looked as if it were making sense, NASA said. 'Charge...