Big Shot

Up from the well-blasted concrete beach at Cape Canaveral, Fla. last week rose the U.S.'s latest contribution to the heavens: a 38.43-lb. instrument assembly called Explorer IV. For the Army's dependable ballistic dray horse, Jupiter-C, which has failed only once in four tries, this was a milk-run space delivery--but on a new route. All other U.S. satellites were launched toward the equator to take advantage of the earth's 1,000-m.p.h. spin. Explorer IV soared northeast along the New England coast, into a looping orbit which will span more of the earth's surface--including most of Russia.

The U.S. is not as interested in a celestial view of Moscow as it is in a thick, radioactive mantle 600 miles overhead, which overwhelmed the sensory devices of earlier satellites. Explorer IV's extra beef--it is seven pounds heavier than Explorer III--went into instruments custom-built to examine this ionized belt, which may reach all the way to the sun and could well thwart mortal designs on outer space. Within minutes of launch, Explorer IV was wheeling with the other moons, 170 miles up at the lowest, 1,400 miles up at the highest, sending back vital intelligence on this cosmic barrier.

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