Our first satellite was launched 50 years ago today!! Spurred on by the Russian Sputnik launch the United States launched Explorer 1 on January 31, 1958. I believe we were ready years before this but you know how politics are, some things never change.

The orbit of the tiny satellite (14 kg or 30.8lb) was not too circular, it was 1,594 miles at the maximum and 225 miles at a minimum and it took 114 minutes to complete an orbit.

Explorer 1 was instrumental in helping Dr. James Van Allen discover the existence of the radiation belts around the Earth we know as, surprisingly enough, the Van Allen Belt.

You might think way back then the satellite would have been in orbit for a week or two and come back, burning up in the atmosphere. In fact that little satellite completed more than 58,000 orbits and didn’t burn up in the atmosphere until March 31, 1970!!

JPL/NASA has an absolutely excellent website devoted to Explorer 1. They really did a fantastic job, so you should go poke around, you can find it HERE.