In its edition on 7 March 1960 Time magazine reported that the “mysterious ‘dark’ satellite wheeling overhead on a regular orbit” that had made headlines three weeks earlier, causing “nervous speculation that it might be a surveillance satellite launched by the Russians”, was in fact “a space derelict, the remains of an Air Force Discoverer satellite that had gone astray”.

“The dark satellite was the first object to demonstrate the effectiveness of the US’s new watch on space,” Time reported. “And the three-week time lag in identification was proof that the system still lacks full coordination and that some bugs still have to be ironed out.” Oh, what a relief, panic over!

Nice save that by the United States defence department... lucky they could bring everyone up to speed just three weeks after the story had broken and the American public had been worried sick they were being watched by the Russians who’d successfully launched Sputnik 1, the first man-made object to orbit the Earth, on 4 October 1957... FULL STORY