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[edit] Inferior means
The article says "Americans cheered on the orbiting of these early Explorer satellites, not realizing that it was by a means inferior to that of the Russians." What does the "inferior means" refer to? The fact that the upper stages were not guided? I guess that would be true, in the sense that it would theoretically be more accurate to have all the stages be guided; but in fact Explorer I's apogee and perigee weren't that different from Sputnik I's, and the eccentricity wasn't that much greater (about .14 for Explorer 1, vs. .052 for Sputnik 1). Much more notable, it seems to me, is the difference in weight: 31 lbs. for Explorer 1, vs. 180 lbs for Sputnik 1 (and much more for Sputnik 2 and later).
At any rate, it would be nice to be explicit about what was inferior about the means. Maybe s.t. like "...not realizing that the upper stage guidance system on the Sputnik launchers, and the lack of any upper stage guidance on the Explorer launch vehicles, meant that the Soviet rockets were considerably more sophisticated than these American ones." Mcswell (talk) 20:31, 31 January 2008 (UTC)
