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Sputnik III carried the first science experiments into orbit in 1958.
Sadly, the craft’s data recorder failed. The only information that could be
beamed back was from experiments carried out as the craft passed overhead. One
intriguing result was the existence of high levels of radiation. A few weeks
later, a US satellite carrying a detector built by James Van Allen confirmed
the existence of radiation belts that surround the Earth. Physicist Roald
Sagdeev who led many Soviet space projects, says that Russian engineers knew
the recorder was broken but were forced to launch for political reasons. This
and other remarkable stories make Sagdeev’s autobiography, The Making of a
Soviet Scientist (Wiley, $17.95, ISBN 0 471 12929 1), on extraordinary
read.