The Complete Book of Spaceflight: From Apollo 1 to Zero Gravity

144 FTL
(Project Vela) and then as ARPA’s deputy director. In
1966, he became assistant secretary of the Navy for
research and development, and then served as assistant
executive director of the United Nations Environmental
Program (1973–1975). After leaving NASA, he became
vice president for research at the General Motors Research
Laboratories.
FTL
Faster than light. A general science fiction term for any
hypothetical means of circumventing the Einsteinian
speed limit. The abbreviation goes back at least as far as
the late 1950s. See faster-than-light (FTL) travel.
fuel cell
A cell in which a chemical reaction is used directly to produce
electricity. The reactants are typically hydrogen and
oxygen, which result in water as a by-product. The water
can then be used for cooling and for human consumption.
Fuel cells are generally used on manned spacecraft.
Fuji
See JAS-1.
FUSE (Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer)
A NASA ultraviolet (UV) astronomy satellite. FUSE
carries four 0.35-m far UV telescopes, each with an ultraviolet
high-resolution spectrograph that covers the ultraviolet
band from 91 nm, the hydrogen ionization edge,
to 119 nm, just short of the Lyman alpha line. Its observations
are used to measure the abundance of deuterium
in the universe as well as to study helium absorption in
the intergalactic medium, hot gas in the galactic halo,
and cold gas in molecular clouds from molecular hydrogen
lines. NASA has recommended a two-year extension
beyond the three-year primary science mission.
Launch
Date: June 24, 1999
Vehicle: Delta 7925
Site: Cape Canaveral
Mass: 1,400 kg
Orbit: 753 × 769 km × 25.0°
fuselage
The structure or airframe that houses payload, crew, or
passengers. Although not inaccurate when applied to
rockets, this term is used more commonly with regard to
airplanes.
fusion, nuclear
The process by which heavier nuclei are manufactured
from lighter ones with (typically) the release of large
amounts of energy.
Fuyo
See JERS (Japanese Earth Resources Satellite).