Using the Ruby Laser in the device above, Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratory scientists managed to bounce a beam off the Explorer 22 satellite and, for the first time, photograph the reflection. Robert Iliff, right, and Theodore Wirtanen, center, were testing the LARGO geodsey system at the time. The thin black tube is the laser and its cavity and the broad, black mass at far left is a photoelectric recorder. A stellar camera mounted in a telescope a few feet away photographed the light bounce.

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