Happy 60th Birthday to Explorer 1, the US’ First Satellite
By Kendall Russell | January 31, 2018
The creators of Explorer 1 holding a model of it on the press conference at launch day, February 1, 1958. L-R: William Pickering, James Van Allen, Wernher von Braun. Photo: NASA.
On Jan. 31, 1958, the United States launched its first successful satellite, Explorer 1, on a Jupiter C rocket from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Missile Annex. The mission was a boon to the U.S.’ burgeoning space community, coming off the back of three consecutive failures and the Soviets’ own successful launch of Sputnik 1.