magazine storage compartment for the stowage of ammunition.
mast upright pole on the center line of a ship's deck, used for carrying sails or for supporting rigging, cargo, and boat-handling gear.
messroom compartment where crew members eat their meals. An officer's meal compartment is sometimes called a wardroom messroom.
mooring the operation of anchoring a vessel or securing it to a mooring buoy, wharf, or dock.
mooring lines chains, ropes, or cables used to tie a ship to a wharf or dock.
nautical mile 6,080 feet.
panting the pulsations of the bow and stern bottoms as the vessel rises and plunges in rough seas.
pea jacket short, heavy woolen seaman's coat.
pelorus navigational instrument similar to a compass, used in taking bearings. Also known as a dumb compass.
pilot house navigational center near the front of a vessel, providing an unobstructed view in all directions except directly aft.
pitching rising and falling of a vessel's bow as it rides other waves.
pitchpoling the flipping over of a vessel in rough seas, from front to back.
plunger wave with a distinctly convex back with a crest that fails suddenly and violently, usually found near shore. See spiller.
poop the structure or raised deck at the aft of a vessel.
port the left side of a vessel when looking from aft forward.
pudding fender material constructed of ropes, canvas, leather, or old tires to prevent chafing or denting from piers or other vessels.
regatta a boat race or series of boat races.
rigging collective term for all ropes, chains, or cables used to support masts, yards, booms, and similar equipment.
roll motion of a vessel from side to side in rough seas.
rudder flat slab of metal or wood used in steering a vessel.
scuppers deck drains or gutters for carrying off rain- or seawater.
scuttlebutt drinking fountain.
shellback veteran sailor or old salt.
shroud set of ropes stretched from the masthead to a vessel's side, used for support or to ascend the mast.
sick bay medical service area.
sounding measurement of the depth of water.
spar pole serving as a mast, boom, gaff, yard, bowsprit, and suchlike.
spiller wave with a concave back and a crest that breaks gradually and continuously, usually found away from shore.
starboard the right side of a vessel when looking forward.
stateroom a private room for passengers or officers. stem the front of a bow.
stern the aft or rear of a vessel.
superstructure any structure built above the uppermost complete deck, such as a pilothouse or bridge.
tack any change of course or veering of a vessel to one side in order to take advantage of a side wind.
tiller an arm attached to the rudder for operation of the rudder.
turn turtle to capsize.
wake wash or churning water left behind a ship's passage.
weather deck uppermost continuous deck exposed to the weather.
windlass a drumlike apparatus used for hoisting heavy anchor chains and hawsers.
yard a spar attached at its middle to a mast and running athwartship as a support for a square sail, halyard, lights, and other equipment.
yardarm outer end of a yard.
spaceflight
Satellites and Space Probes
Apollo a NASA program comprising a series of manned lunar missions, beginning in the 1960s, and ending in the 1970s.
Ares 1 a NASA rocket currently in development to take the next generation of astronauts into space.
astronaut Latin term for "sailor of the stars." A space traveler.
attitude a satellite's orientation in orbit, for example, pointed toward Earth or the Sun.
burn the firing of a spacecraft's thrusters.
Canopus a bright star used as a reference point in a space probe's navigation.
Cassini a two-story high space probe launched in 1997 to explore Saturn and its moons.
Chandra a boxcar-sized, X-ray observatory launched in 1999 to study X-ray sources at the centers of galaxies.
Corot a French probe set for launch early in the 21st century to search for planets around distant stars.
cosmonaut Russian term for an astronaut.
cruise a probe's travel time between planets.
decay the gradual loss of a satellite's orbital altitude due to Earth's gravity.
Deep Space 1 a spacecraft launched in 1998 to test spacecraft technologies.
Deep Space 2 twin probes launched in 1999 to analyze Martian subsurface soil, but which ultimately failed.
downlink to send radio signals from a spacecraft to Earth.
DSN Deep Space Network, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's spacecraft tracking facility.
ERv earth return vehicle; any part or component of a probe that returns to Earth.
ESA European Space Agency.
escape velocity speed required to propel a spacecraft beyond Earth's gravitational forces.
explosive bolts explosive bolts detonated to separate experimental packages or other subsystems while in orbit.
Galileo a space probe launched in 1989 to collect data on Jupiter and its moons.
Gemini NASA program featuring the first manned extravehicular activity in orbit, and the first manned docking of two spacecraft, 1965-1966.
Genesis a spacecraft launched in 2001 to collect solar wind particles.
geosynchronous orbit an orbit synchronized with the turning of Earth so that the satellite stays above the same area of Earth at all times.
Giotto a space probe launched to collect data on Halley's Comet in 1986.
gravity assist the use of a planet's gravity to deflect or slingshot a space probe deeper into space.
heavy space plane an experimental shuttle craft capable of "flying" into orbit by using ejector ramjet engines combined with rocket engines.
HESSI High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager; a probe to be launched early in the 21st century to study solar flares.
horizon sensor on a satellite, an onboard sensor that perceives Earth's horizon as an aid to maintain proper attitude.
Hubble Space Telescope a large, orbiting observatory, launched in 1990 from the space shuttle.
hydrazine space probe's onboard fuel used for attitude-adjusting rockets.
hydrogen peroxide a fuel sometimes used to power a satellite's maneuvering rockets.
International Space Station an orbiting space station composed of 100 separate elements, which will stretch more than 100 meters long when completed and built cooperatively by 16 nations. The first two component modules, the Unity and Zarya, were linked by shuttle astronauts in 1998. Construction was slowed and in question after the loss of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003.