Science: Two-in-One Shot

The U.S. began last week to toss up satellites by the bundle.

Cape Canaveral fired a Thor missile with a second-stage Able-Star rocket. Inside a cone atop the Able-Star snuggled the Navy's 223-lb. Transit II-A navigation satellite, a sphere 36 in. in diameter. Transit was the rocket's principal passenger. But with it went a satellite hitchhiker: a 42-lb., 20-in. globe stuffed with instruments to measure solar radiation.

The two satellites went aloft attached firmly together. The first-stage Thor fired for about 160 seconds, then fell away while the Able-Star took over, firing for five minutes. Then it shut off its engine and coasted...

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