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

space exploration beyond the Moon to interplanetary
space and, in particular, a manned journey to Mars.
Although the characterization is poor and the dialogue
often inane, there are some memorable scenes, including
those of a rocket attempting to outrace a pursuing asteroid
and a wheel-like space station designed along the
lines proposed by Wernher von Braun.
Conrad, Charles “Pete,” Jr. (1930–1999)
A veteran American astronaut, selected by NASA in September
1962. He served as pilot on Gemini 5 (becoming
the first tattooed man in space—he had a blue anchor and
stars on his right arm), command pilot on Gemini 11,
commander on Apollo 12, and commander on Skylab 2.
In December 1973, after serving for 20 years (including
11 during which he was also an astronaut), Conrad
retired from the U.S. Navy to become vice president of
operations and chief operating officer with American
Television and Communications Corporation in Denver,
Colorado. Three years later he joined McDonnell Douglas
in St. Louis, Missouri, where one of his projects involved
working on the Delta Clipper. Conrad died on
July 8, 1999, following a motorcycle accident.
conservation of momentum
A fundamental law of motion, equivalent to Newton’s
first law, which states that the momentum of a system is
constant if there are no external forces acting on it.
Constellation-X
A set of powerful X-ray telescopes that will orbit close to
each other and work in unison to observe simultaneously
the same distant objects, combining their data and becom-
Charles “Pete” Conrad Conrad (left) and Gordon Cooper on
the deck of the recovery aircraft carrier USS Lake Champlain
following their Gemini 5 flight. NASA
Cooper, Leroy Gordon, Jr. 87
ing one hundred times more powerful than any previous
single X-ray telescope. Constellation-X has been designed
to perform X-ray spectroscopy with unprecedented sensitivity
and spectral resolution. The measurement of large
numbers of X-ray spectral lines in hot plasmas will allow
astronomers to determine the flow of gas in accretion disks
around black holes, in active galactic nuclei, and in binary
X-ray sources; to measure the population of newly created
elements in supernova remnants; and to detect the influence
of dark matter on the hot intergalactic medium in
clusters of galaxies. The Constellation-X mission, currently
under design, is a key element in NASA’s Structure and
Evolution of the Universe theme.
contact ion thruster
A form of electrostatic propulsion in which ions are
produced on a heated surface and then accelerated in an
electric field to produce a high-speed exhaust. Of the two
types of ion propulsion that have been studied thoroughly
over the past four decades—the other being the
electron bombardment thruster—it has so far proved
much the less useful for practical use in space. The difficulty
is that the only propellant that has been shown to
work in the contact ion method is cesium, because only
cesium atoms have an outer (valence) electron that can
be removed when the atoms are adsorbed onto the surface
of a suitable metal, such as tungsten. However,
cesium is so corrosive that it has been impractical to
handle in devices that operate reliably over the long periods
required for ion propulsion.
contamination
In spaceflight, the unwanted transfer of microbes by
spacecraft from one celestial body to another.
CONTOUR (Comet Nucleus Tour)
A NASA Discovery Program mission that was to have
taken images and obtained comparative spectral maps
during close flybys of the nuclei of at least three comets,
including Comet Encke in November 2003. However,
following a successful launch on July 3, 2002,
CONTOUR appears to have suffered a catastrophic failure
during the rocket burn that took it out of Earth orbit.
The probe broke into at least two pieces that are now
orbiting the Sun uselessly.
control surface
A surface such as a flap or an elevon used to control the
attitude of a rocket or aerospace vehicle aerodynamically.
Cooper, Leroy Gordon, Jr. (1927–)
One of the original Mercury Seven astronauts and the
first man to go into orbit twice. Cooper flew the last and