Part one of term paper
orbit the earth doing our bidding in ways that enrich the lives of almost all of us. Through electronic eyes from hundreds of miles overhead, they lead prospectors to mineral deposits invisble on earth's surface. Relaying communications at the speed of light, they shrink the planet until its most distant people are only a split second apart. ...

Part two of term paper
... the U.S. takes place at Cape Canaveral in Florida, NASA's Wallops Flight Center in Virginia, or, for polar orbiters, Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. One satellite in 20 is crippled by the jolt of lift-off, or dies in the inferno of a defective rocket blast, or is thrust into improper orbit. A few simply vanish into the immensity of space. When a satellite emerges from the rocket's protective shroud, radiotelemety regularly reports on its health to round-the-clock crews of ground controll ...