Shrinking the Universe

The week was seared with rockets. The U.S. communications satellite, Echo II, expanded its aluminum skin and made ready to reflect messages from space. Saturn 5, boosting the biggest payload man has ever lofted into orbit, shot into the vast blue reaches above Cape Kennedy. Soon after, Ranger 6 arced on a graceful, curving course toward the moon. From a secret launching pad, half the world away, Soviet scientists fired a missile that spewed out two separate satellites. The variety of the shots was as impressive as the number, and the infinite distances of the universe seemed to shrink perceptibly as men reached outward with more and more authority.

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