Word: orbitals
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That after-image haunted all Americans, in a week that brought successes for their nation almost everywhere save in the unillumined corners of its own big cities. The U.S. could look proudly to the skies, where the Gemini 5 capsule whirled in orbit; to far-off Viet Nam, where raw young marines scored the war's most notable victory against a well-entrenched, battle-seasoned Viet Cong force; to their own boundless farm lands, where record crops were ripening...
...nest of trouble that had postponed the flight for two days. Fuel cells running low on fuel, liquid hydrogen boiling uselessly away, telemetering equipment turned suddenly unreliable, fire near the launch pad, thunderstorms aloft−all seemed problems of the past. Now everything was going well; Gemini's orbit was incredibly exact. "Everything is fine," reported Command Pilot Gordon Cooper. "You are go! You are go!" exulted Astronaut Jim McDivitt, capsule communicator in the Mission Control Center near Houston...
...only did the trouble-plagued Pratt & Whitney hydrogen engines take full charge in flight, but the guidance for the General Dynamics rocket sys tem checked out perfectly. Centaur soared into an orbit that was so exact that had Surveyor carried the proper equipment, it could have made a slight mid-course correction and been on its way to the moon...
...unmanned Gemini capsule that descended on the desolate scrub outside Fort Hood, Texas, had not even come close to orbit. It had simply been car ried aloft by an Air Force C-119 trans port and cut loose at the relatively low altitude of 11,000 ft. But the prosaic flight was an effort to answer important questions' Can capsules such as Gemini be brought down to soft landings on hard ground, and can future astronauts be given any control over the point of impact? To both questions the answer was an impressive...
Behind all the schemes is an all-important question: How well can man take the rigors of an extended stay in orbit? On such flights, men will endure far more than Mercury or Gemini crews ever did. They will suffer prolonged weightlessness, radiation, fear, prolonged states of alert, close confinement, disruption of normal day-night and work-rest cycles. They will live for long periods on reclaimed water and in a recycled atmosphere. And always there will be monotony, fatigue and the oppressive loneliness of space. "We simply don't have enough experience to say with any certainty what...