Science: U.S. Planet

For nearly 3½ days the delicate radio signal came bravely down from space. At last it faltered. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's 85-ft. antenna at Goldstone Dry Lake, Calif, changed to a special filter and held the signal for a few minutes more. A receiver of General Electric's at Schenectady, N.Y. heard the signal intermittently for about an hour longer. Then it faded out. Some 410,000 miles away in outer space, Pioneer IV, the U.S.'s first man-made planet, wheeled on around the sun, but now silent forever.

The new planet, a gold-plated fiberglass cone weighing 13.4 Ibs., did not compare in weight with...

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