Word: spaceships
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Gemini 10 became the first spaceship ever to use the fuel and propulsion system of another craft to power its own flight; it demonstrated the feasibility of refueling in space, a technique that promises to be a vital part of interplanetary travel to Mars and beyond. Gemini was also the first spacecraft to rendezvous with two different vehicles on the same flight. It flew higher than any previous manned spacecraft and Astronaut Mike Collins, at 35, became the first man to work outside, his ship twice during the same mission. All of which places the U.S. far ahead of Russia...
Liquid hydrogen is the most effective rocket fuel ever developed. Some 40% more powerful than the kerosene fuel used in the Saturn booster, it will place the Apollo spacecraft in earth orbit, then be used again in the same flight to hurl the spaceship toward the moon. The trouble is, its virtues are not bought cheaply. Its extreme volatility and the - 423° F. temperature necessary to keep it in liquid form make it difficult to deal with both on the ground and in space. NASA spacemen had theorized that once weightless in orbit, liquid hydrogen would scatter around...
...themselves to its end at last. But just as they did, in some miraculous fashion the temperature started going down again, and the battery once more accepted a charge. How long Surveyor would last and whether it would work again, no one could say. In any event, the little spaceship had long since accomplished its mission...
...frigid lunar night finally ended, sunlight once again splashed its warmth on the man-made visitor, Surveyor I. After its two-week hibernation at -250° F., the spaceship showed no sign of reviving. Its receiver, turned on ever since it landed on the moon almost four weeks before, seemed incapable of picking up radioed signals and translating them into the commands that would awaken the space traveler's other instruments. Day after day, the scientists at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena tried to make contact; day after day, their only response was silence...
...well have changed the operating frequency of Surveyor's receiver, the JPL men tried varying the tuning of their own equipment. Still they got no answer. Then, last week, a signal from an 85-ft. parabolic antenna in Australia's Tidbinbilla Valley finally got through-near the spaceship's original frequency. Surveyor's transmitter obeyed the order, turned on, and reported in response to queries that all electrical and mechanical systems were functioning once more. Surveyor was again a fully operational spacecraft...