Science: Plumber's Satellite

The U.S. satellite will not be launched in its orbit for a considerable time to come (no one wants to say just when), but that is no reason why the teams that are training to track it should stare at an empty sky. An airplane flying at moderate speed at a moderate altitude can pretend, for research purposes, to be a satellite swinging around its orbit at 18,000 m.p.h. 300 miles up.

Minitrack. Last week at Blossom Point, Md., about 40 miles south of Washington, the Naval Research Laboratory showed how the satellite's feeble...

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