Upwards of 15,000 scientific papers have drawn on data the telescope provided. What's more, the HST is always facilitating new discoveries. Today it's still providing mankind with clear, mesmerizing images of our universe. The payload on this satellite would deliver high-resolution images of space into our homes. Explorer 1 dipped into Earth's atmosphere and burned up in March 1970, after orbiting Earth 58,000 times.Ī satellite launched 20 years later revealed insights that went far beyond science books. He believed Explorer 1 had passed through a hitherto-unknown radiation belt that had oversaturated the on-board instruments with charged particles.Īnother satellite, sent into orbit two months later, delivered data that backed up Van Allen's theory, and the Van Allen radiation belts surrounding Earth entered the science books.
Physicist James Van Allen hypothesized that the cause of the anomaly was essentially an interference with the satellite's cosmic ray detector. Some of the readings transmitted from Explorer 1 showed cosmic ray activity that was significantly lower than scientists expected. Once Explorer 1 made it into space, it began collecting information on the cosmic rays there. Our understanding of Earth's atmosphere was forever changed by this little object. The satellite circled the planet 12 and a half times a day, its altitude fluctuating from 1,563 miles (2,515 kilometers) to 220 miles (354 kilometers) above Earth as it measured the cosmic radiation in its environment. Explorer 1 measured 80 inches (203 centimeters) long and 6.25 inches (15.9 centimeters) in diameter, and weighed 30 pounds (14 kilograms). The satellite rode into space onboard a rocket, and it carried equipment designed to help scientists study the cosmic rays in Earth's orbit. It took less than three months for the JPL to finish Explorer 1. Immediately after the news of Sputnik's success, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), soon to be the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, began designing the satellite that would follow Sputnik into space. After the Russian Sputnik was launched in October 1957, the launching of an American satellite assumed much greater importance. Launch of Jupiter-C/Explorer 1 at Cape Canaveral, Florida on Jan. Over the last 60 years, NASA has achieved every one of those goals, and it continues to seek answers to some of the biggest mysteries in science as it evolves with a changing world. Right from the start, its goals were lofty: The administration planned to expand human knowledge of space lead the world in space-related technological innovation develop vehicles that can carry both equipment and living organisms into space and coordinate with international space agencies to achieve the greatest possible scientific advancements. Not a minute was wasted in eliminating the Soviets' lead: Even before NASA was up and running, the U.S.
It took Congress almost a full year after Sputnik's launch to get the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) off the ground. President Dwight Eisenhower and Senator Lyndon B. military had been developing satellites since the mid-1940s, but now it became clear that a dedicated space agency was in order. The Cold War was on, and the United States scrambled to respond in kind.
When the satellite Sputnik orbited Earth in October 1957, The Soviet Union pulled ahead in the space race. flag during the Apollo 15 lunar surface mission at the Hadley-Apennine landing site. 1, 1971 while standing beside the deployed U.S.