AMERICA'S SPACE AGE TURNS 50

Cosmiclog ^ | Thursday, January 31, 2008 8:08 AM | Alan Boyle

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's William Pickering, University of Iowa physicist James Van Allen and rocket scientist Wernher von Braun hold up a model of Explorer 1 at a news conference after hearing the satellite had reached orbit on Jan. 31, 1958. Click on the image to watch a newsreel report on the launch.

Carl Raggio still remembers how tense he felt exactly 50 years ago, on the night America entered the Space Age.

He and his fellow engineers were playing gin rummy at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. - but their minds weren't fully on the game. They were waiting for the beep-beep-beep that would tell them the satellite they had slaved over for months had actually reached orbit. "That's an anxious time," he told me this week. "That's the gut time."

Then the definitive signal came. It came later than expected, but nevertheless it came, at 9:45 p.m. PT on Jan. 31, 1958. Explorer 1 was circling Earth for the first time - and proving that America could match the Soviets on the Cold War's orbital frontier.

At a Washington news conference, the rocket pioneer who came to America from Nazi Germany rejoiced. "We have firmly established our foothold in space," Wernher von Braun declared. "We will never give it up again."

Meanwhile, back in Pasadena, Raggio could finally tell his wife about the project he had to keep secret. "I called her up at about 11 o'clock at night and asked her, 'Guess what we're doing?'" he recalled.

What Raggio and his co-workers were doing was getting America into the space game.

The achievement is being celebrated this week with special vigor at JPL at Pasadena - as well as at Cape Canaveral, Fla., where the rocket was launched, and in Huntsville, Ala.,

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

where von Braun and his cadre of German engineers were based.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I remember Sputnik....beep.....beep...

[mcjordansc]

James Van Allen was my astronomy professor in college. He hardly ever made it to class. The TAs did all the work. Of course, he was busy bringing grant money to the U of Ia. Brilliant man.

[NonValueAdded]

Happy Birthday, Rocket Boys!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Sputnik's legacy

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Fifty years after Sputnik, earthlings are either giddy at the prospect of returning to the exploration of space or bemoaning the fact they've been away from it for so long. Luckily, humanity's machines have boldly gone ever farther while we stayed close to home

PAUL TAYLOR

From Saturday's Globe and Mail

September 30, 2007 at 9:40 PM EST

On Oct. 4, 1957, a powerful missile launched from a remote corner of the former Soviet Union climbed a ladder of smoke and flame to the heavens - and the space age was under way.

Instead of a warhead, the modification of Moscow's first long-range ballistic missile carried Sputnik, the first man-made object to orbit Earth.

Fifty years later, Sputnik seems modest for space hardware. Equipped with four spindly antennas, it was the size of a basketball and weighed just 84 kilograms. But the Soviet achievement shocked the United States and its allies. The Cold War rivals soon were locked in a race to the moon.

The United States won that marathon with astronaut Neil Armstrong's lunar footstep on July 20, 1969 - and for a brief moment, humanity seemed capable of anything.

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This first official picture of the Soviet satellite Sputnik I was issued in Moscow October 9, 1957, showing the four-antennaed satellite resting on a three-legged pedestal. Working in obsessive secrecy, the Soviets propelled the Sputnik satellite into space on Oct. 4, 1957, making it the first man-made object to reach the limits of the earth s gravity. At the height of the Cold War, Sputnik was one of the Soviet Union s most glorious victories and it touched off near panic in the United States, where political and military leaders forecast grave consequences if America lagged behind. (AP)

[RckyRaCoCo]

On the 5th anniversary of the loss of Columbia I happened upon this website with an interesting reconstruct(including NASA audio) of the final 7 minutes of reentry.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Speaking of Van Allen....here is something:

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Scientific payoff

Explorer 1 gave America a chance to recover some of its confidence and prestige after the Sputnik shock, but there was a scientific payoff as well: The data returned by the satellite showed that Earth was not surrounded by a swarm of killer pebbles, as some scientists had feared. However, the cosmic-ray readings hinted at the existence of bands of radiation surrounding the planet - an unexpected result that led to the discovery of the Van Allen Belts.

"It established the first scientific discovery of the Space Age," JPL historian Erik Conway said.

[Ignatz]

"James Van Allen was my astronomy professor in college."

Did he use suspenders to keep his pants up? [ducking]

[Marine_Uncle]

Hey! Me to... beep beep beep.

[Empireoftheatom48]

Damn, I was 9 years old, I remember trying to see it in the nights sky. I don’t think I saw any thing though!

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Ernest.