Fifty years ago today, the United States successfully launched its first satellite, Explorer 1. The launch on January 31, 1958 was its first (successful) response after Russia successfully launched two satellites.
The three men given most credit for its success are Jet Propulsion Laboratory Director William Pickering (left), scientist James Van Allen (middle) and rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun (right).
The achievement is being celebrated this week at JPL at Pasadena, at Cape Canaveral, Fla., where the rocket was launched, and in Huntsville, Ala., where von Braun and his cadre of German engineers were based.
Explorer 1 was 80 inches long with a diameter of 6.25 inches. Explorer I sent data to the ground for just over 100 days before its batteries died, but it wasn’t until March 31, 1970, 12 years and two months after its launch, did the satellite disintegrate while reentering the atmosphere.
Sputnik 1 was the world’s first orbiting spacecraft, launched by the Russians on October 4, 1957. Sputnik 2 carried a dog, and was launched in November 1957.
The International Space Station, currently 60 percent complete, is a $100 billion orbital outpost still under construction. Assembly began in 1998, and today has 16 partner nations.
Meanwhile, the Atlantis Shuttle is being prepped for delivery of the Columbus Module (above) to the space station for a planned Feb. 7 launch. The fuel sensor problem that derailed two attempts to launch the shuttle Atlantis in December has been resolved, NASA managers said today.
The spacecraft that NASA hopes will return humans to the moon is scheduled to begin flight testing in fall 2008.
The Orion spacecraft is expected to replace NASA’s aged space shuttle fleet with missions in Earth’s orbit, including visits to the International Space Station.
Each Orion spacecraft will carry a crew of four to six astronauts, and will be launched by the new Ares I launch vehicle.
They are scheduled to begin in 2015, with humans returning to the moon sometime before 2020.
It still costs some $10,000 a pound to get stuff into geosynchronous space.
Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf launched the internet with their now-famous paper, “A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication“. The first public demonstration of the Arpanet was in 1972, when approximately 50 nodes were operating. The InterPlanet Internet permits interoperation with other remotely located internets resident on other planets or spacecraft in transit.
Space.com describes Galactic Wi-fi.
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