As they circle the earth, crossing each other's orbits every 50 minutes or so, the U.S. satellite Explorer and the Soviet Sputnik II stay true to their national characters. Sputnik II is silent now, but even before its radio went dead its instruments talked in a secret code, and last week the Russians were still taciturn about its coded reports on conditions in space.* But the Explorer, a talkative American working in a published code, was droning away in the clear to all who would listen.
Around the world, both hams and professional radio stations picked up the Explorer's signals, sometimes...
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