Science Reporter

This strange gadget is not the 1965 Budget, nor is it the latest in the "Beehive" proposals. Our Science Editor assures us that it is in fact part of the multi-million dollar United Stales space programme.

In our next two Science features we will be considering aspects of this programme, with the aid of background material provided by Dr. W. H. Pickering, the New Zealand-born director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Pasadena, USA.

In particular, we will be looking at the basic scientific alms behind the Ranger and Mariner space programmes, and some of the technical challenges which have been overcome.

In the meantime, we leave you in contemplation of this piece of "space junk." (Photo courtesy of United States Information Service.)