Satellite for Posterity

The 3.25-lb. Vanguard satellite that was launched on March 17 has become a semi-permanent member of the solar system. Dr. John P. Hagen, head of Project Vanguard, announced last week that Vanguard I is on a "very stable orbit," rising as high as 2,500 miles and never approaching closer to the earth than 404 miles.

The trace of air that exists at this altitude has almost no drag, so Dr. Hagen thinks that the little satellite "will probably circle the earth over the heads of your grandchildren, and even their grandchildren," for as many as 200 years. Its two radio transmitters are still working fine, and since they get their power from solar batteries, they will broadcast indefinitely until some disaster, e.g., meteor impacts, shuts them down.

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