Word: orbiter
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Ballet in Orbit. Another scientific faction, typified by Lloyd Berkner, former chairman of the Space Science Board of the National Academy of Sciences, deplores the race-with-Russia aspect of the space program but yearns for the moon just the same. "Human society," says Berkner, "rises out of its lethargy to new levels of productivity only under the stimulus of deeply inspiring and commonly appreciated goals. In the conquest of space, men, ideas and materials are pushed beyond previous limits and capabilities. The seemingly impossible is brought within the range of daily employment...
Four hundred million copper wires are now circling the globe in a polar orbit at an altitude of 2300 miles. These "needles" are part of Project West Ford which began in 1958 when it was first suggested by Mr. Walter E. Morrow of M.I.T.'s Lincoln Labs. Morrow planned to place a belt of copper wires above the earth in order to provide a jam-proof, fail-proof, destruction-proof communication system...
...October, 1961, the first attempt to orbit the copper particles was made. However, the package designed to disperse the copper "needles" into the required belt failed to operate properly and all the Air Force got for its money were four or five useless clumps of wire floating around the earth. But two weeks ago Lincoln Labs was given its second chance, and seems to have succeeded. The dispenser package was mounted piggyback on another Air Force satellite and launched into orbit...
After careful checking to be sure the "needles" package was in proper orbit, radio command was sent to the satellite, activating its dispensing mechanism. Within a day, 50 pounds of copper wire were strewn in a large cloud about the dispenser. As time passes, this cloud will disperse evenly to form a orbiting belt of "needles" roughly five miles wide and 25 miles thick. At present the belt is about 11,500 miles long, and is spreading around the globe at the rate of 1000 miles...
...frequency off the belt. According to J.A. Kessler of Lincoln Labs, theWest Ford experiment is operating on schedule and the results of wave propagation and actual communication experiments have been "quite good." If the "needles" program succeeds, the Air Force may want to put two permanent communication belts in orbit...