The United States became a spacefaring nation 60 years ago today. On Jan. 31, 1958, the nation launched its first successful satellite — Explorer 1, which rode to Earth orbit atop a Jupiter-C rocket ...

The first U.S. satellite, Explorer 1, was launched on January 31, 1958, marking a pivotal moment in American space history. Coming just months after the Soviet Union’s Sputnik satellites, NASA’s ...

Explorer 1 launched on January 31, 1958, as the first American satellite to orbit Earth, propelled by a modified German V-2 rocket (Jupiter-C), initiated in response to the Soviet Union's prior ...

Sixty years ago next week, the hopes of Cold War America soared into the night sky as a rocket lofted skyward above Cape Canaveral, a soon-to-be-famous barrier island off the Florida coast. The date ...

A half-century ago, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Explorer 1 spacecraft became America’s first Earth-orbiting satellite when it sailed into space on Jan. 31, 1958. In honor of the historic ...

Explorer 1 was the first successful satellite launched by the United States. It was designed and built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) under the direction of Dr. William Pickering. They ...

Learn about the role that the Jet Propulsion Laboratory played before the creation of NASA. Explorer 1 traces the story of the role JPL played before the creation of NASA and how the lab was given a ...