The launch seemed so routine that only a few bird watchers turned out at the Cape Canaveral pad. And as the Thor-Delta rocket rose above the southern morning, the Bell Telephone Laboratories scientists who had built its cargo followed its course with rising confidence. Satisfied at last that their latest communication satellite, Telstar II, was in proper orbit, they put through a telephone call to their space communication station at Andover, Maine. "She's all yours. Go play with her!" It was hardly the type of space spectacular that President Kennedy warned would soon be touched off...
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