THE NATION: Historic Beginning

Far outrunning all other achievements of the lusty, newborn age of space missilery, the U.S. one morning last week unleashed the powerful Pioneer moon-probe rocket from the pads of Cape Canaveral and sent it piercing space to a distance of 80,000 miles above the earth.

Hairline calculations were made to aim the Pioneer for the moon's vicinity, in the hope that its instruments could measure and even get a dim picture of the mysteries that have nagged men's minds for centuries. But its trajectory was off; Pioneer missed the moon and headed...

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