Science: Suggestion to Astronauts: Look, Ma, No Hands

It was evaluation time at Cape Canaveral last week, and if U.S. space technicians have any complaint, it is that U.S. space travelers still seem to think they are primarily airplane drivers. Like Colonel John Glenn before him, Commander Scott Carpenter soared into orbit with remarkably little faith in his capsule's automatic positioning equipment. He spent all but a few minutes of his five hours aloft "flying" his spaceship by hand, changing its attitude while in orbit with squirts of peroxide steam, at one point using two systems at once. As a result,...

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