... The Seasons . ... Section #1 Stargazers and Skywatchers described the observed motion of the Sun across the sky, in different seasons of the year. ... If the Earth's axis were perpendicular to the ecliptic, as in the drawings here, the Sun's position in the sky would be halfway between the celestial poles, and its daily path, seen from any point on Earth, would stay exactly the same, day after day. Each point on Earth would be carried around the axis AB once a day. ... The Sun and Seasons . ...

... It was designed to observe the solar wind approaching Earth, from a position near the Lagrangian point L1, and it is part of the International Solar-Terrestrial Physics (ISTP) Initiative . ... The original plan called for "Wind" to approach its final station over two years, undergoing two close encounters with the Moon to boost its speed. ... If however the object is moving , the encounter is not symmetric, and in the end the spacecraft may have gained or lost speed, depending on its trajectory. ...

Mariner 2 . Mariner 2, the world's first successful interplanetary spacecraft, was launched August 27, 1962. It reached Venus on December 14, 1962, after a 108-day journey from Earth. ... The Mariner 2 mission was authorized by NASA in August 1961, less than a year before the first launch window. ... Mariner 2, the world's first successful interplanetary spacecraft, was launched August 27, 1962, and passed 34,916 kilometers (21,648 miles) from Venus on December 14, 1962. ... Space History . ...

Cosmic Research, Vol. 42, No. 5, 2004, pp. 435­488. Translated from Kosmicheskie Issledovaniya, Vol. 42, No. 5, 2004, pp. 453­508. Original Russian Text Copyright © 2004 by Veselovsky, Panasyuk, Avdyushin, Bazilevskaya, Belov, Bogachev, Bogod, Bogomolov, Bothmer, Boyarchuk, Vashenyuk, Vlasov, Gnezdilov, Gorgutsa, Grechnev, Denisov, Dmitriev, Dryer, Yermolaev, Eroshenko, Zherebtsov, Zhitnik, Zhukov, Zastenker, Zelenyi, Zeldovich, Ivanov-Kholodnyi, Ignat'ev, Ishkov, Kolomiytsev, Krasheninnikov, Kudela,