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

mid-1930s, Malina began a research program to design a
high-altitude sounding rocket. Beginning in 1936, he
and his colleagues started the static testing of rocket
engines in the canyons above the Rose Bowl, with mixed
results, but a series of tests eventually led to the development
of the WAC-Corporal rocket during World War
II. After the war, Malina worked with the United
Nations and eventually retired to Paris to pursue a career
as an artist.
Malyutka
A Soviet rocket point interceptor designed by Nikolai N.
Polikarpov beginning in 1943. The small aircraft, powered
by a Glushko engine burning nitric acid and
kerosene, was designed to reach a speed of 845 km/hr on
flights of 8- to 14-minute duration. Prototype construction
was under way when Polikarpov died on July 30,
1944. He had Stalin’s support but many enemies. The
result was that his design bureau and projects were immediately
canceled after his death.
maneuver, capture
A maneuver that carries out the transition from an open
to a closed orbit.
maneuver, correction
A change of orbit during a spaceflight to a path closer to
a preselected trajectory.
maneuver, escape
A maneuver carried out to escape from a celestial body.
maneuverability
The structural or aerodynamic quality of an air vehicle
that determines the rate at which its attitude and direction
of flight can be changed. It is commonly expressed
in gs or as g-load.
Manhigh, Project
An experimental program begun in December 1955 to
study the behavior of a balloon in an environment above
99% of Earth’s atmosphere and to investigate cosmic rays
and their effects on human beings. Three balloon flights
to the edge of space were made during the program:
Manhigh 1 to 29,500 m, by Captain Joseph Kittinger on
June 2, 1957; Manhigh 2 to 30,900 m, by Major David
Simons on August 19–20, 1957; and Manhigh 3 to
29,900 m by Lieutenant Clifton McClure on October 8,
1958. Including pilot and scientific equipment, the total
mass of the Manhigh 2 gondola was 748 kg. At maximum
altitude, the balloon expanded to a diameter of 60 m
with a volume of over 85,000 cubic meters. 252
Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) 255
Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU)
A one-man propulsion backpack, used on Space Shuttle
missions, that snaps onto the back of a spacesuit’s
portable life-support system. The MMU allows an astronaut
to work outside without a tether up to 100 m away
from the Orbiter and is designed to provide EVA support
for as much as six hours at a stretch. The MMU weighs
140 kg and is propelled by nitrogen gas fed to 24 thruster
jets. Two pressurized nitrogen tanks can be filled from
the Orbiter’s onboard supply. All systems on the MMU
are dual-redundant—if one system fails, a second can
completely take over. The MMU was first tested in space
by Bruce McCandless in 1994.
Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL)
A U.S. Air Force two-man cylindrical space station, about
12.5 m long and 3 m in diameter, which would have been
attached to a Gemini spacecraft for 30-day missions in
orbit similar to those of the early Salyut space stations. It
was intended to develop reconnaissance techniques and
carry out other clandestine tasks. Approved by President
Johnson in 1965, the MOL project went as far as having a
mockup launched by a Titan IIIC on November 3, 1966,
but was canceled in 1969. Much of the technology for
MOL is believed to have been transferred to unmanned
spy satellites.
Manned Maneuvering Unit Bruce McCandless uses the
MMU outside the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1984 for the
first untethered spacewalk. NASA