Word: meteorics
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...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...
...pressure inside it (.2 lb.) is enough to stretch the wrinkles out of the aluminum film and make it mirror smooth. After doing this job, the nitrogen escapes into the vacuum outside. O'Sullivan wants to get rid of it because the balloon may be punctured by a meteor, and a jet of gas escaping from it might push it off its regular orbit...
...fine wires in the Explorer's meteor-detecting grids have been broken, presumably by micrometeorites. The microphone inside the satellite also picked up the impact of an object against the satellite's skin...
...megacycle radio time signal sent out 24 hours a day by the National Bureau of Standards' station WWV near Washington, D.C. In daytime the signal reflects strongly from the ionosphere, but at night the ionosphere is less effective, so the signal gets much weaker. When a small meteor streaks across the sky, it leaves behind it a trail of ionized air that acts as a small reflector. The ionized air increases the strength of the Washington time signals for a couple of seconds...
...Kraus was familiar with this effect, so when Sputnik I took to space, he went after it, antenna pointing like a hunter zeroing in on a duck. The satellite, moving at near meteor speed, and much bigger than common meteors, performed magnificently, leaving an ionized trail at each night passage. The trail reflected the time signal strongly for as much as a minute. The bursts of reflected waves came from just the right places and at just the right times to fit the satellite's slowly shifting orbit...