THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF
SPACE EXPLORATION AND DISASTERS
Edited by Richard Russell Lawrence
Abbreviations
A-4: Aggregate 4, the prototype German rocket
LOX: Liquid Oxygen
NACA: National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics
NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
V-2: Vergeltungswaffe 2 (Vengeance weapon 2)
ASCS: Automatic Stabilization and Control System
EOR: Earth Orbit Rendezvous
G: Gravity, normal gravity on earth is IG
ICBM: Intercontinental Ballistic Missile
JPL: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
LOR: Lunar Orbit Rendezvous
LOS: Loss Of Signal
LOX: Liquid Oxygen
MA: Mercury-Atlas
MIT: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MPT: Mercury Procedures Trainer
M-R: Mercury Redstone
Q: Aerodynamic stress
SARAH: Search and Rescue and Homing
SECO: Sustainer Engine Cutoff
V-1: Vergeltungswaffe 1 (Vengeance weapon 1)
VfR: Verein fuer Raumschiffahrt (Space Travel Association)
USSR: Union of Socialist Soviet Republics
ALSEP: Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package
AM: Airlock Module
AMU: Astronaut Manoeuvring Unit
ATDA: Augmented Target Docking Adapter
Capcom: Capsule communicator
CONTROL: Lunar Module flight control officer
CSM: Command Service Module
DOI: Descent orbit insertion
DSKY: Display & Keyboard
EECOM: Electrical & Environmental command officer
EGIL: Flight Controller for electrical and environmental systems at the launch
EST: Eastern Standard Time
EVA: Extra Vehicular Activity or spacewalking
FDI: powered descent initiation
FIDO: Flight dynamics officer
GET: Ground Elapsed Time
GNC: Guidance, Navigation and Control
GUIDO: Guidance officer
INCO: Instrument & Communications Officer
J-2: engine of the Saturn booster S-IVB third stage
LEM: Lunar Excursion Module
LLRV: Lunar Landing Research Vehicle
LM: Lunar Module
LOI: Lunar orbit insertion
LRL: Lunar Receiving Laboratory
MDA: Multiple Docking Adapter
MET: Modularised Equipment Transporter
PC+2: Two hours after Perycynthion (the closest point to the far side of the moon)
PLS S: portable life support system
PTC: Passive Thermal Control
RETRO: Retrofire officer
S1C: a variant of the Saturn booster (first stage)
SII: Saturn booster (second stage)
S-IVB: a variant of the Saturn booster (third stage)
S-WB: the Saturn stage which contained the LEM
SCE: Signal Condition Equipment
SM JETT: Service Module Jettison (switch)
SPS: Service Propulsion System (the CSM’s engine)
SWS: Saturn Workshop (Skylab)
TEI: TransEarth Injection
TELMU: Telemetry, electrical, EVA, mobility unit officer
BPS: Automatic docking equipment on board MIR’s unmanned supply vessels
CCD: Charged Coupled Detectors
COSTAR: Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement
DSD: a Depressurization Sensor
FA: First Aid
HST: Hubble Space Telescope
ISS: International Space Station
IVA: Intra Vehicular Activity (a spacewalk inside a depressurized space craft)
KURS: A radar/guidance system used when docking spaceships to space stations
LiOH: solid cylinders of Lithium hydroxide which filter CO2 out of the air
MOD: Missions Operations Directive
NCS: NICMOS Cooling System
OMS: Orbital Maneuvering System
OPM: Optical Properties Monitor
PS: Payload Specialist
SAMS: calibration device aboard MIR, used to study vibrations and structural stress
SEP: calibration of power levels remaining in MIR’s batteries
SFOG: Solid Fuel Oxygen Generator
SUD: MIR’s motion-control system
TDRS: Tracking and Data Relay Satellite
TORU A: remote control system for docking unmanned spaceships
TsUP: Soviet then Russian Mission Control
