Chose to remain uninformed. Sputnik impact underestimated. Lack of priority. Chosen to be beaten. Object D launched. American rockets close the gap. Manned spaceflight. Soviet Vostok program. First man in space - Yurii Gagarin. Tireless care of Communist Party. Explorer and Vanguard. Project Orbiter. NRL proposal. Killian Report. Stewart Committee. Selection of Vanguard and termination of Orbiter. NRL and Martin teams. New launch vehicle. Power plant. Comprehensive program. Worldwide network.
Predecessor of STDN. Optical tracking system. Precise time. Computers for satellite tracking. Scientific instruments. Success of TV-0 and TV Baby satellite. Solar cells. Attention focuses on Vanguard.
Jupiter C. Army leaders at Redstone. Medaris charges ahead. Discovery of radiation belts. Micrometeorite sensors. Passive thermal control. Spacecraft spin. Explorer 1 in orbit. Evolution of Explorer 1 spin axis. Dancing in the streets of Huntsville.
Vanguard 1 in orbit. The oldest man-made object in orbit. Birth of NASA. Freedom of space accepted. National space effort. Presidential science advisor. National debate. Scientific-technological elite.
National Aeronautics and Space Act. Keith Glennan. NACA centers. Transfer o f JPL. Marshall Space Flight Center. Beltsville Space Center. Science and applications. Communication satellites. Echo satellites. Manned Spacecraft Center. Seven Mercury astronauts. Space report card for Kennedy challenges the nation.
The road to the American satellite was bumpy, to say the least. The early enthusiasm about Earth-orbiting satellites in the immediate after-the-war years had gradually dissipated as a result of lack of government support. Not all activities, fortunately, stopped: dedicated space enthusiasts continued to publish scientific articles advocating small research satellites, and RAND was evaluating the utility of spacecraft for overhead reconnaissance.
The same exigencies of the Cold War that had called for the ICBM pointed to satellite reconnaissance as a top national security priority. The studies performed by RAND with close participation of industrial contractors culminated in a report, issued in March , on the Project Feed Back describing a military satellite equipped with a television camera.
In addition, technology was rapidly advancing in many areas important for spacecraft, such as invention of the transistor in and practical silicon-based with reasonable efficiency solar cells in , enabling significantly more efficient and capable satellites.
Several converging developments in the early s would lead to the American satellite. An American scientist, Lloyd V. Berkner, was a key figure in formulating and advancing the concept of the IGY. Subsequently he served as vice president of a special international committee arranging and coordinating the IGY activities.
Jan 31, Mar 31, May 23, Ranger 8. Interstellar Mission. Ranger 3. Mars Cube One. Mars Science Laboratory. These provided power that operated the high power transmitter for 31 days and the low-power transmitter for days. Because of the limited space available and the requirements for low weight, the Explorer-I instrumentation was designed and built with simplicity and high reliability in mind. It was completely successful. Explorer I stopped transmission of data on May 23, , when its batteries died, but remained in orbit for more than 12 years.
It made a fiery reentry over the Pacific Ocean on March 31, Explorer I was the first of the long-running Explorer program, which as of November has launched 83 Explorer probes. This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia with only minor checks and changes see www. Previous Next.
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