Race to place first satellite
Even though cooperation, rather than competition, is the keynote of the International Geophysical Year (IGY), scientists would be less than human if they were not speculating which of the artificial Earth satellites – American or Russian – will be aloft first.
The Americans have announced that the launching of theirs must be postponed until next year. The Russians until very recently contented themselves with a mere couple of sentences affirming their intention to send up a satellite during the IGY. Now, however, they have communicated in some detail to the IGY central planning committee the nature of…
