Science: No Go

The U.S.’s widely heralded, 36-million-mile Venus spaceship, Mariner I. last week climbed dead on course from Cape Canaveral with $4,000,000 worth of sensing equipment crammed into it. Then, after 3½ min. because of what was officially described as “a human error” in the information fed into a computer, Mariner wandered irresolutely off course, and a button presser on the Cape gave it the order to blow itself up.

That little mishap cost the taxpayers perhaps $20 million. But that is how the money goes in space. Canaveral’s spacemen hope to try again before Sept. 10. After that date, Venus will have sailed through the heavens beyond the point where mere 20th century man will deem it feasible to pursue her again until 1964.