Word: orbitings
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...march toward space can start, Von Braun suggests, without adopting the full space station program. Even slight extensions of present techniques could set a small, unmanned missile circling round an orbit just outside the atmosphere...
...rocket is shot straight up at less than escape velocity and makes the proper turn as it clears the atmosphere, it will be sidetracked to an orbit above the earth and will circle around endlessly. The centrifugal force of the rocket's motion around the earth will exactly balance the pull of the earth's gravitation. This same balance of forces keeps the moon on its rails...
Since it takes less energy to reach an orbit than to escape from the earth, astronauts believe that a moderate-sized three-stage rocket, or even a two-stage one, could make the trip with a good payload. It would park its load (e.g., fuel) in the orbit, where it would circle as safely as if it were back at the filling station...
This principle works just as well in reverse. If a body is moving faster than 26.1 miles per second, it cannot be a permanent member of the solar system. It must be a visitor from space, bound for space again on an "open," one-time orbit...
Julius Caesar in 45 B.C.) was based on the solar year, i.e., the time it takes the earth to make its orbit around the sun. But Caesar's astronomers had not been accurate: the Julian year was 11 minutes, 14 seconds longer than the solar year. If this had gone on unchecked, spring would eventually have fallen in December, Easter coincided with Christmas...