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With Sedov at Barcelona were two Russian women scientists. Astronomer Alia Masevich, 25, head of the Russian satellite-tracking stations, is the moonfaced girl genius of Russian science. She is married to a professor of mathematics, and has a daughter, 4. She is a staunch Communist Party member and is reputed to frown on Sedov's grandfatherly Gemiit-lichkeit. With her is Cosmic Ray Expert Lydia Kurnasova, about 45, who looks like Eve Curie. Her husband, a Russian sportsman, was killed in a car crash several years ago. Her hobby, she says, "is looking at beautiful things."
Scientist Masevich loosened up a little, telling how the authorities pulled a surprise test on her tracking system. The Soviet air force sent a jet plane flying high with only one dim navigation light, making like a Sputnik. The Soviet Moon-watch picked it up successfully, and four days later the real Sputnik took to space.
At the last day of the Barcelona conference, Sedov announced that he had known before he left Russia that the Sputnik, a crash program, was about to be launched. He also predicted that the Russians would "soon" send a rocket to the moon.