spacecraft

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

n. spaceship, rocket, transport (see astronautics).

II

(Roget's IV) n.

Syn. rocket, spaceship, shuttle, space shuttle, space station, satellite, flying saucer, capsule, unidentified flying object (UFO), manned orbiting laboratory (MOL), orbiting vehicle (O.V.), re-entry vehicle (R.V.), lunar module (L.M.), command module (C.M.), service module (S.M.), repulsor, flying missile, projectile rocket, warhead, deep-space ship, reconnaissance rocket, moon messenger, remote-controlled spaceship, probe, lunar orbiter, weather satellite; see also satellite 2 .

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.

rocket, rocket ship, spaceship, shuttle, orbiter, capsule, space probe, satellite, Apollo, Gemini, Mariner, flying saucer, UFO.

WORD FIND

• activities of astronaut outside of spacecraft: EVA, extravehicular

• activity, spacewalk agency: NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Agency

• astronaut’s life-support cable used outside craft: umbilical

• cancel mission: scrub

• cancel mission in progress: abort

• cargo: payload

• chamber between pressurized and unpressurized compartment: airlock

• distant measuring science: telemetry

• electronic monitoring systems: avionics

• entry into earth’s atmosphere: reentry

• firing of thrusters or rockets: burn

• flight path: trajectory

• fuel: hydrazine, hydrogen peroxide, LOX (Liquid Oxygen)

• gravity force equal to earth: g

• gravity force in earth orbit: microgravity

• gravity slingshot method to boost craft further into space: gravity assist

• ground station: tracking station

• hazardous flying sand grains: micrometeoroids

• independent system on board: module, subsystem

• launchpad pit: flame pit

• loss of orbital altitude due to earth’s pull: decay

• orbit that matches earth’s rotation: geosynchronous orbit

• orientation in orbit: attitude

• payload, launching into space: deployment

• power source: solar cells, photovoltaics see fuel

• propellants that ignite on contact with one another: hypergolic propellants

• radio signal from earth to spacecraft: uplink

• radio signal from spacecraft to earth: downlink

• rocket, extra lifting: booster

• rocket, slowing or reversing: retro rocket

• rolling craft to diffuse external heat: barbecue mode

• shuttle’s nickname: *flying brick

• space probe nerve center: JPL, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

• space shuttle nerve center: Mission Control

• speed of sound, five times the: hypersonic (above Mach 5)

• speed of sound: Mach

• speed of sound, twice the: Mach 2

• timespan within which craft must be launched: launch window

• wall: bulkhead