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Kourou

(Encyclopedia)Kourou, town and commune (2007 pop. 25,918), N French Guiana, on the coast 26 mi (42 km) NW of Cayenne. A rocket-launching base, the Guiana Space Center, is mainly in the commune near the town; the So...

Cape Canaveral

(Encyclopedia)Cape Canaveral kənăvˈərəl [key], low, sandy promontory extending E into the Atlantic Ocean from a barrier island, E Fla., separated from Merritt Island by the Banana River, a lagoon; named (1963)...

Korolev, Sergei Pavlovich

(Encyclopedia)Korolev, Sergei Pavlovich, 1907–66, Soviet rocket designer. His role as chief designer of the Soviet space program was revealed only after his death. After he successfully launched two intercontinen...

Young, John Watts

(Encyclopedia)Young, John Watts, 1930–2018, American astronaut, b. San Francisco. A Navy test pilot, he joined the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's astronaut program in 1962. Young served as pilot ...

Redstone Arsenal

(Encyclopedia)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 Ar...

satellite, artificial

(Encyclopedia)CE5 A. Nimbus weather satellite B. Syncom communications satellite satellite, artificial, object constructed by humans and placed in orbit around the earth or other celestial body (see also space ...

Skylab

(Encyclopedia)Skylab: see space exploration; space station. ...

dimension, in mathematics

(Encyclopedia)dimension, in mathematics, number of parameters or coordinates required locally to describe points in a mathematical object (usually geometric in character). For example, the space we inhabit is three...

Aldrin, Buzz

(Encyclopedia)Aldrin, Buzz ôlˈdrĭn [key] (Edwin Eugene Aldrin, Jr.), 1930–, American astronaut, b. Montclair, N.J. After graduating from West Point (1951), Aldrin joined the U.S. air force and flew 66 combat m...

Van Allen, James Alfred

(Encyclopedia)Van Allen, James Alfred, 1914–2006, American physicist and space scientist, Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. A graduate (Ph.D 1939) of and professor of physics (1951–85) at what is now the Univ. of Iowa, where...