Word: paddlewheel
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...chemical battery, the other solar-powered and possibly could transmit for the expected life of the satellite-20 years. But, through a unique timing device, the radio will shut off after one year so as not to clutter the air waves. Explorer VII takes over from the Explorer VI paddlewheel (TIME, Aug. 17), whose solar-powered radio, expected to run for years, disappointingly signed off a fortnight...
...roared a 90-ft., 52½-ton Thor-Able rocket, lifting cleanly into an overcast sky with steadily increasing acceleration. Two minutes and 40 seconds later the second stage fired smoothly, then the third. Out from the sides of the globular pay load unfolded four strange paddles. As the "paddlewheel satellite" tumbled through space at 171 revolutions per minute, 8,000 solar cells in the 20-inch-square vanes picked up the sun's energy to charge the chemical batteries, send messages back to the earthlings. Seventeen minutes after launching, its first radio signals beeped to the tracking station...