Word: splashdown
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...astronauts' own splashdown was far more gentle. At the end of a three-day homeward flight that was uneventful to the point of boredom, Yankee Clipper dropped into the choppy Pacific 405 miles southeast of American Samoa-exactly 10 days 4 hr. and 36 min. after its lightning-marred launch from Cape Kennedy. The landing was only 13 seconds off schedule and only 2.6 miles from its target near the bow of the Hornet. Even so, there was a moment of tension. Drifting down under its three big orange-and-white chutes in full view of a worldwide...
Before their scheduled splashdown in the South Pacific early this week, the astronauts were to send two more telecasts to earth. One of these would include the first press conference in space. Mission Control was to relay reporters' questions to the astronauts, who would respond before a worldwide TV audience. Yet even before that briefing, it was clear that the mission of Apollo 12 had given man new confidence about his role in space. It has also proved, as Wernher von Braun said, that man can live and work on the moon, and that it can indeed be quite...
...returned safely from his assignment, back to the newspaper office with its hundreds of square yards of carpeting. Apollo 11 was coming back, too, and everyone crowded around the six huge American color television sets for splashdown...
Meanwhile, in Huntsville, Ala., site of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, the moment of splashdown set off a screaming cacophony of sirens and church bells. With the town at a total standstill for two hours, there was time for a crowd of 8,000 to gather at the courthouse square to greet Rocket Engineer Wernher Von Braun. Von Braun was hoisted off his feet by the sheriff and three city councilmen and carried through the cheering crowd-an experience, he said, that "must have been as thrilling as riding one of our Saturn 5s into space...
Despite the wild enthusiasm, there was little harm done at any of the splashdown brawls. Drunken geologists in Houston paraded around with a decorative boulder they had taken from a motel courtyard, explaining that it was a moon rock. A few barefoot guests at the Nassau Bay motel poolside picked up splinters from broken glasses and bottles. And the four-man police force of the city of Webster (adjacent to the Manned Spacecraft Center) gently arrested a dozen happy drunks. The county sheriff's officers, however, seemed unable to find any wrongdoers. "This was a proud crowd," explained Captain...