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

446 troposphere
TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) The TRMM
satellite in preparation for launch. NASDA
rain radar; TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI), a
microwave radiometer that provides data related to rainfall
rates over the oceans; and Visible Infrared Scanner
(VIRS), a passive cross-track scanning radiometer that
measures scene radiance in five spectral bands (visible
through infrared).
troposphere
The lower layer of Earth’s atmosphere, extending from
the surface up to about 18,000 m at the equator and
9,000 m at the poles.
Truax, Robert C.
An American rocket engineer and a longtime advocate of
small, low-cost launch vehicles. Truax began experimenting
with rockets as early as 1932, then became involved
with rocket programs as a Naval officer during World War
II. He earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the
Naval Academy (1939) and later a B.S. in aeronautical
engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School and an
M.S. in nuclear engineering from Iowa State College.
After the war, he worked on a number of ballistic missile
and space launch vehicle programs including the Thor,
Viking, and Polaris. In 1959, he retired from the Navy as
a captain and joined Aerojet, where he headed the
Advanced Development Division until leaving in 1966 to
form his own company, Truax Engineering.
True of Date (TOD)
The most accurate coordinate system used to define a
body’s position relative to the center of the Earth. This
coordinate system takes account of Earth’s rotation, UT
corrections, and small irregularities due to precession,
nutation, and polar wander.
Truly, Richard H. (1937–)
An American astronaut and a senior NASA manager.
Truly earned a B.S. in aeronautical engineering from
Georgia Institute of Technology in 1959 and, that same
year, received his commission in the U.S. Navy. Following
flight school, he toured aboard U.S.S. Intrepid and
Enterprise. From 1963 to 1965, he was a student and then
an instructor at the Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot
School, Edwards Air Force Base. In 1965, Truly became
one of the first military astronauts selected to the Air
Force’s Manned Orbiting Laboratory program, transferring
to NASA as an astronaut in August 1969. He served
as CAPCOM (Capsule Communicator) for all three Skylab
missions in 1973 and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
in 1975, as pilot for one of the two-astronaut crews that
flew the 747/Space Shuttle Enterprise approach and landing
test flights in 1977, and as backup pilot for STS-1, the
Shuttle’s first orbital test. His first spaceflight came in
November 1981, as pilot of Columbia (STS-2), and his
second flight in August 1983 as commander of Challenger
(STS-8), the first night launch and landing in the Shuttle
program. Truly then temporarily left NASA to serve as
the first commander of the Naval Space Command, Virginia,
which was established October 1, 1983, but he
came back as NASA’s Associate Administrator for Space
Flight on February 20, 1986. In this position, he led the
rebuilding of the Shuttle program following the Challenger
disaster. This was highlighted by NASA’s celebrated
return to flight on September 29, 1988, when
Discovery lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on the
first Shuttle mission in almost three years. After retiring
from NASA, Admiral Truly returned to his alma mater as
director of the Georgia Tech Research Institute.
Trumpet
Fourth-generation U.S. Air Force signals intelligence
satellites equipped with a large deployable mesh antenna;
they operate from Molniya-type orbits and are designed