Let There Be Light

IT WASN'T NEARLY ENOUGH TO MAKE CROPS GROW or give anyone a Saint-Tropez tan, but for the first time ever, there was sunlight in the middle of the night. This seemingly divine miracle was actually the product of a thin, 65-ft. plastic mirror mounted on the unmanned Russian spacecraft Progress, which, from its 225-mile-high perch, reflected light on a sleeping Europe. The umbrella-like mirror, called Banner, did not quite turn night into day, but it did project a weak 2 1/2-mile-wide beam that danced across the Continent for six minutes. A French observer described the flashing pulse of light as "luminous diamonds following one another across the sky."

Not just a frivolous attempt to tamper with nature, the experiment could conceivably be the first step in providing extra daylight to sun-starved northern cities, extending planting and harvest periods and aiding nighttime rescue missions. Those goals will remain distant, however, until the Russians' space program, cash-starved after the end of the cold war, gets a new infusion of money. They'll need more than mirrors to pull off that trick.