I was in the Soviet Union in August 1958 on the date when the Americans were going to launch this probe to the Moon. They did so and I managed to get on the telephone from... via a linguist who could speak 15 languages. He managed to get the telephone network through to Jodrell Bank where I learned that the rocket had been launched but had failed a few seconds after lift-off. This was repeated a second time and in October they launched their second attempt, they called them Pioneers then, the Pioneer II, and this was more successful. It travelled... it was located by the telescope and we tracked it for, I think, 18,000 or 19,000 miles in... into space when it became perfectly clear it was nowhere like going to the Moon. And, in fact, it then fell back to Earth, but nevertheless, had collected some important data from the ionosphere and the amount of interplanetary space for which it had... so I think there was one other attempt which had a similar effect. So the Americans had failed with their new missile, to... new launching rocket to send a payload to the Moon.