|
space shuttle
space shuttle Re-usable rocket-powered US spacecraft. The main part of the shuttle, the orbiter (of which four have been built, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, and Atlantis), looks like a bulky jet aircraft with swept-back wings. It ferries people and equipment between the ground and Earth orbit. ...
Read more
|
|
Redstone Arsenal
Redstone Arsenal U.S. rocket research and development center, 38,781 acres (15,694 hectares), N Ala., W of Huntsville; est. 1941. One of the state's largest industrial enterprises, it includes the Army Missile Command, responsible for the army's rocket and guided missile program; the Army Missile a...
Read more
|
|
|
rocket
rocket any vehicle propelled by ejection of the gases produced by combustion of self-contained propellants. Rockets are used in fireworks, as military weapons, and in scientific applications such as space exploration.
Rocket Propulsion
The force acting on a rocket, called its thrust, is e...
Read more
|
|
|
space exploration
space exploration the investigation of physical conditions in space and on stars, planets, and other celestial bodies through the use of artificial satellites (spacecraft that orbit the earth), space probes (spacecraft that pass through the solar system and that may or may not orbit another cel...
Read more
|
|
picric acid
picric acid or 2,4,6-trinitrophenol , C 6 H 2 (NO 2 ) 3 OH, a toxic yellow crystalline solid that melts at 122°C and is soluble in most organic solvents. Picric acid is a derivative of phenol . It reacts with metals to form metal picrates, which like picric acid itself are highly sensitive ...
Read more
|
|
guided missile
guided missile self-propelled, unmanned space or air vehicle carrying an explosive warhead. Its path can be adjusted during flight, either by automatic self-contained controls or remote human control. Guided missiles are powered either by rocket engines or by jet propulsion . The American, R. H....
Read more
|
|
|
Fireworks
Fireworks
Background
A firework is a device that uses combustion or explosion to produce a visual or auditory effect. Modern pyrotechnics also includes devices similar to fireworks, such as flares, matches, and even solid-fuel rocket boosters used in spaceflight.
The earliest ancestors of firewor...
Read more
|
|
Will Rogers
Will Rogers (William Penn Adair Rogers), 1879-1935, American humorist, b. Oolagah, Indian Territory (now in Oklahoma). In his youth he worked as a cowboy in Oklahoma, and after traveling over the world, he returned to the United States and worked in vaudeville as a cowboy rope-twirler, joking cas...
Read more
|
|
tetanus
tetanus or lockjaw, acute infectious disease of the central nervous system caused by the toxins of Clostridium tetani. The organism has a widespread distribution and is common in the soil, human and animal feces, and the digestive tracts of animals and humans; however, the toxin is destroyed ...
Read more
|
|
|
whooping cough
whooping cough or pertussis, highly communicable infectious disease caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis. The early or catarrhal stage of whooping cough is manifested by the usual symptoms of an upper respiratory infection with bronchial involvement. After about two weeks the cough be...
Read more
|
