Word: launchful
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...components based both in space and on the ground could be deployed some time after the year 2000 at a cost of about $95 billion. The defensive net would employ lasers, particle beams and shotgun-like pellets to destroy, in theory at least, Soviet ICBMS any time between their launch and their re-entry into the atmosphere. The enemy missile attack would be detected by a mix of land-and space-based electronic surveillance systems...
...cylindrical Salyut 7 was launched in April 1982. Its present occupants, Cosmonauts Alexander Alexandrov and Vladimir Lyakhov, rocketed aloft to go aboard last June. On Sept. 9, according to Western intelligence sources, the ship developed a leak in its propellant system that disabled half of its steering jets. Aviation Week & Space Technology quoted one U.S. space official as saying, "Salyut 7 is essentially dead in the water." Eighteen days later a Soyuz ferry ship loaded with a fresh crew and additional supplies exploded on the launch pad. The two cosmonauts escaped certain death by lifting off from the flaming launch...
...decision to send up Progress 18 was regarded as an encouraging sign for the spacemen. Said veteran Soviet Space Watcher James Oberg (Red Star in Orbit): "There seems to be little real anxiety in mission control." However, as Oberg notes, Salyut's steering problems, combined with the launch-pad fiasco, show that the Soviets cannot yet manage replacement of crews on a regular, scheduled basis. Such a capability is a prerequisite for operating a permanent orbital station...
...cabinet meeting where President Eisenhower and congressional leaders learn about the Soviet flight into space, the politicians debate over what Americans would make the best astronaut. Two advisors run through a checklist of daredevils and stuntmen-trapeze artists, hang-gliders, human cannonballs-as the best people to launch into the atmosphere. The implication is that such a person is not-as our hindsight a freak. It is for public relations reasons, not need of certain skills, that Eisenhower finally demands, "I want test pilots...
Draper Labs researches and designs missile guidance systems. O'Connor said the firm revolutionized naval warfare in World War II by inventing a gun that enabled the U.S. to deal effectively with Kamikazes. Draper also developed the sensory instruments that guide a missile from its point of launch to another specific point on earth. "We do feel we've performed a national service. There is no organization in the world that is more capable in developing these systems," he said...