The U.S. last week polished off three new achievements in its ever-brightening space program:
¶Discoverer XVII, launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, swung into polar orbit, logged 1,000,000 miles in 31 turns around the earth, then, on signal popped its instrument capsule over the Pacific. As if that triumph of precision were not enough, an Air Force C-119 flying boxcar, one of nine planes covering a 12,500-sq.-mi. "ballpark" near Honolulu, snagged the parachuting capsule at 9,500 ft.
¶Downrange in the South Atlantic, the recovery ship Timber Hitch stood by as Cape...
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