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From: td@alice.UUCP (Tom Duff)
Newsgroups: net.astro
Subject: Re: StarDate: November 26 The Third Nation in Space
Message-ID: <3121@alice.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 28-Nov-84 06:50:26 EST
Article-I.D.: alice.3121
Posted: Wed Nov 28 06:50:26 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 29-Nov-84 03:08:22 EST
References: <837@utastro.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 8

While France was the third nation to launch a satellite of their own, they
were not the third nation into space.  The Canadian Alouette communication
satellite, which was launched by NASA for the Canadian government, predates
the French effort.  Surely the significance that the referenced article
ascribes to the French (``[it] clearly broadcasted that other nations were
developing the technology needed for space exploration'') belongs to Alouette.

Also, Alouette operated for a lot longer than 2 days.