Measuring the rapidly decreasing altitude, a radar sensor will inflate Pathfinder's four airbags in a quarter second and ignite a cluster of three small braking rockets.
32.
Adding a jet would enable the mission to change position quickly if the final burns of Mir's braking rockets push it further south than currently expected.
33.
Communications were not to resume until the probe had made a successful plunge into the atmosphere and a controlled final descent by parachute and braking rockets.
34.
I think " braking rocket " is just a less widely used synonym . & # 160; talk 21 : 35, 4 May 2006 ( UTC)
35.
The Soyuz heat shield will pop off shortly before touchdown to expose six small braking rockets that will fire two seconds before impact to soften the blow.
36.
As soon as the braking rocket shut off, there was a sharp jolt, and the craft began to rotate around its axis at a very high velocity,
37.
"If the burns ( braking rocket firings ) don't go properly, it would hit at about 20 miles per hour, " said Robert Farquhar, the NEAR mission director.
38.
The Soyuz landing involves greater pulls of gravity on the body, jarring rocket firings, swinging under a parachute and hitting the ground after the last-minute firing of braking rockets.
39.
Flight control teams at the Pasadena facility expect a signal from the spacecraft at 9 : 26 p . m . CDT, confirming that its braking rocket has ignited.
40.
The pilots fired the braking rockets about an hour before touchdown, putting the shuttle on a course for NASA's 3-mile ( 5-kilometer )-long runway, illuminated by powerful xenon floodlights.
