Science: Sic Transit

"It's working like a Swiss watch right now." That, last week, was the judgment of a top member of the team that developed the Navy's navigation satellite Transit IVA. Following three earlier Transits that suffered from minor but decisive bugs (e.g., a burst battery), Transit IVA, launched last fortnight, is doing its electronic job better than anyone had hoped. Though planned as an experimental model, it will become a regular part of the navigation-satellite system if it continues to work well.

Transit's intricate workings [TIME, July 7] depend on an electronic system that...

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