Sputnik was a wakeup call for the US. China's 'hypersonic missile' is a trickier challenge

"Listen now, for the sound that forevermore separates the old from the new."That was how NBC radio introduced the signal from the first satellite in space, on October 4, 1957.But it wasn't a triumph of American science: The sound came from the Soviet Union's Sputnik, a piece of hardware the size of a beach ball whose launch stunned the world -- and the United States in particular.The phrase "