Fergie's Tech Blog

23 May 1958: First U.S. Satellite, Explorer I, Ceases Transmission

Explorer-I, officially known as Satellite 1958 Alpha, was the first United States Earth satellite and was sent aloft as part of the United States program for the International Geophysical Year 1957-1958.

It was designed and built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the California Institute of Technology under the direction of Dr. William H. Pickering. The satellite instrumentation of Explorer-I was designed and built by Dr. James Van Allen of The University of Iowa.

The satellite was launched from Cape Canaveral (now Kennedy Space Center) in Florida at 10:48pm EST on January 31, 1958, by the Jupiter-C vehicle.

The Jupiter-C has its origins in the United States Army's Project Orbiter in 1954. The project was canceled in 1955, however, when the decision was made to proceed with Project Vanguard.

Following the launch of the Soviet Sputnik I on October 4, 1957, ABMA was directed to proceed with the launching of a satellite using the Jupiter-C, which had already been flight-tested in nose-cone re-entry tests for the Jupiter IRBM (intermediate-range ballistic missile). Working closely together, ABMA and JPL completed the job of modifying the Jupiter-C and building the Explorer-I in 84 days.

Unlike Sputnik 1, Explorer-I was the first spacecraft which actually carried a mission payload.

posted by Fergie @ 5/22/2006 10:01:00 PM