Russian space scientists last week scored a new first of sorts. They admitted that something went wrong with one of their spacecraft.
When the Russians launched their latest satellite, they described it in some detail: it was a practice spaceship, weighing five tons (a new orbiting record), and containing a cabin with the necessary fittings to keep a man alive. There was no man on board, the Russians said, only a dummy the weight of a man. As the satellite cruised around the earth, instruments would report whether conditions inside it were right for a living man. Then the cabin would be...