Having read every issue of SciAm since early 1972 the magazine has gone seriously off the rails in about the last 20 years.

From their diatribes about Star Wars technology (It cannot work) to dumb errors like this.

It is not just the dates that are wrong but the entire basis of the story they tried t foist off.

I enjoyed Smithsonian Magazine for many years also.
Less intense than SciAm but decent articles.

Then they published an article about the GPS system that indicated a complete and utter lack of ANY understanding how it operates.
They failed to understand that the satellites transmit only for the GPS receiver to derive its position.
They only reception they have is for command and control of the satellites.

They had another horrid error around the same time (but in another issue) so I simply did not renew.
Having worked on an orbital GPS receiver and used one from another company I am well acquainted with its operation.