With 35 U.S. and Soviet satellites having achieved orbit, the worldly-birds have lost some of their gee-whiz excitement. But though the public may be getting jaded, U.S. satellites are just getting really useful. Last week, three years to the day after the Russians launched their era-opening Sputnik I, a U.S. Army communications satellite, launched from Cape Canaveral with little fanfare, went into orbit and calmly began to receive, store and spew back a stream of voice and Teletype messages sent up from the earth. Courier 1B is a 51-in.. 500-lb. sphere containing 300...
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