The Difference Between Scientists and Gooney Birds

The Planetary Society, a private group in the US interested in interplanetary travel, attempted to put up a solar sail this week, on a Russian Cosmos 1 rocket, which is launched from a submarine. The Russians announced, soon after launch time, that the rocket launch had taken place, but ultimately failed, due to unknown causes, and the probe had not reached orbit. Nonetheless, "scientists" at the Planetary Society said they believed they had detected signals from the $4 million spacecraft and that it was in orbit.

So, I'm sure it came as a shock to them when, several hours later, the Russian Space Agency announced that the cause of the failure was that the booster exploded 83 seconds after launch, and that the probe got no where near its orbit. This leaves the only possibilities for the Planetary Society's "signals" being either they were hearing the ghost of the obliterated probe, or that they themselves are completely bonkers, hearing "signals" where there are none.

Do space probes have a soul?