Explorer 1, Card No 02 (RaceIntoSpace 1971)

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The Race Into Space (Brooke Bond, 1971)

Explorer 1, Card No 02 (RaceIntoSpace 1971).jpg

Card No. 02: Explorer 1

1st February 1958

America's first satellite Explorer 1 was launched on February 1st, 1958, four months after Russia's first satellite Sputnik 1, and following two disheartening failures of the US Vanguard project.

Explorer 1 was a cylinder with a conical nose, 80 inches long and 6 inches in diameter. At 31 pounds, it was only one-sixth the weight of Sputnik 1, and was placed in a 224 by 1,584 mile Earth orbit by a US Army Jupiter C rocket.

During a four-month active life, this satellite discovered the radiation field surrounding the Earth (named the Van Allen Belt). It re-entered the atmosphere after making 58,376 orbits.


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