Word: orbitals
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...What to Orbit? The first task of Comsat's directors will be to decide whether to use a system of medium-level satellites-such as A.T. & T.'s Telstar...
...week was seared with rockets. The U.S. communications satellite, Echo II, expanded its aluminum skin and made ready to reflect messages from space. Saturn 5, boosting the biggest payload man has ever lofted into orbit, shot into the vast blue reaches above Cape Kennedy. Soon after, Ranger 6 arced on a graceful, curving course toward the moon. From a secret launching pad, half the world away, Soviet scientists fired a missile that spewed out two separate satellites. The variety of the shots was as impressive as the number, and the infinite distances of the universe seemed to shrink perceptibly...
...miles' altitude, the massive first-stage booster shut off and separated. The hydrogen-burning second stage took over, and it burned perfectly for eight minutes. When it was 1,300 miles downrange and 375 miles north of Antigua Island, the triumphant announcement came: Saturn had reached orbiting speed. The new satellite weighs 38,000 Ibs., and 20,000 Ibs. of it is payload. The weightiest Russian satellites, Sputniks 7 and 8, 1961, weighed only 14,292 Ibs. Only six years ago, the U.S. tried and failed to get a 3-lb. Vanguard into orbit...
...birth, it was tucked inside a small canister perched atop a Thor-Agena B rocket booster. Launched from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base, Echo II rocketed into a polar orbit 642 to 816 miles above the earth. As it sped toward Madagascar about an hour after launch, the canister popped open, releasing the sturdy skin of the balloon, composed of two layers of aluminum foil laminated to a sheet of plastic. The warm rays of the sun began to vaporize chemicals inside the satellite, expanding it to its full 135-ft. diameter...
...Glenn explained at a conference, his knowledge from the three-orbit flight of Friendship 7 had long since been assimilated into the space program. Also, by the time the U.S. is ready to launch the Apollo man-on-the-moon shot, Glenn, now 42, will be "near 50-not very old for most occupations, but on the edge of doubt for astronauts." Glenn therefore decided to run for the Senate because "this is an area in which I have had a lifelong interest. I feel that it provides the best opportunity to make use of the experience I have gained...