Explorer 1 was the first satellite launched by the United States in 1958 and was part of the U.S. participation in the International Geophysical Year (IGY). The mission followed the first two satellites,both launched by the Soviet Union during the previous year,Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2. This began a Space Race during the Cold War between the two nations.
The Jupiter-C was an American research and development vehicle developed from the Jupiter-A. Jupiter-C was used for three uncrewed sub-orbital spaceflights in 1956 and 1957 to test re-entry nosecones that were later to be deployed on the more advanced PGM-19 Jupiter mobile missile. The recovered nosecone was displayed in the Oval Office as part of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's televised speech on November 7,1957.
The George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC),located in Redstone Arsenal,Alabama,is the U.S. government's civilian rocketry and spacecraft propulsion research center. As the largest NASA center,MSFC's first mission was developing the Saturn launch vehicles for the Apollo program. Marshall has been the lead center for the Space Shuttle main propulsion and external tank;payloads and related crew training;International Space Station (ISS) design and assembly;computers,networks,and information management;and the Space Launch System. Located on the Redstone Arsenal near Huntsville,MSFC is named in honor of General of the Army George C. Marshall.
Project Vanguard was a program managed by the United States Navy Naval Research Laboratory (NRL),which intended to launch the first artificial satellite into low Earth orbit using a Vanguard rocket. as the launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral Missile Annex,Florida.
The Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) was formed to develop the U.S. Army's first large ballistic missile. The agency was established at Redstone Arsenal on 1 February 1956,and commanded by Major General John B. Medaris with Wernher von Braun as technical director.
The PGM-11 Redstone was the first large American ballistic missile. A short-range ballistic missile (SRBM),it was in active service with the United States Army in West Germany from June 1958 to June 1964 as part of NATO's Cold War defense of Western Europe. It was the first US missile to carry a live nuclear warhead,in the 1958 Pacific Ocean weapons test,Hardtack Teak.
The Saturn family of American rockets was developed by a team of former German rocket engineers and scientists led by Wernher von Braun to launch heavy payloads to Earth orbit and beyond. The Saturn family used liquid hydrogen as fuel in the upper stages. Originally proposed as a military satellite launcher,they were adopted as the launch vehicles for the Apollo Moon program. Three versions were built and flown:the medium-lift Saturn I,the heavy-lift Saturn IB,and the super heavy-lift Saturn V.
The Saturn I was a rocket designed as the United States' first medium lift launch vehicle for up to 20,000-pound (9,100 kg) low Earth orbit payloads. The rocket's first stage was built as a cluster of propellant tanks engineered from older rocket tank designs,leading critics to jokingly refer to it as "Cluster's Last Stand". Its development was taken over from the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in 1958 by the newly formed civilian NASA. Its design proved sound and flexible. It was successful in initiating the development of liquid hydrogen-fueled rocket propulsion,launching the Pegasus satellites,and flight verification of the Apollo command and service module launch phase aerodynamics. Ten Saturn I rockets were flown before it was replaced by the heavy lift derivative Saturn IB,which used a larger,higher total impulse second stage and an improved guidance and control system. It also led the way to development of the super-heavy lift Saturn V which carried the first men to landings on the Moon in the Apollo program.
The PGM-19 Jupiter was the first nuclear armed,medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) of the United States Air Force (USAF). It was a liquid-propellant rocket using RP-1 fuel and LOX oxidizer,with a single Rocketdyne LR79-NA rocket engine producing 667 kilonewtons (150,000 lbf) of thrust. It was armed with the 1.44 megatons of TNT (6.0 PJ) W49 nuclear warhead. The prime contractor was the Chrysler Corporation.
Explorer 2 was an American unmanned space mission within the Explorer program. Intended to be a repetition of the previous Explorer 1 mission,which placed a satellite into medium Earth orbit,the spacecraft was unable to reach orbit due to a failure in the launch vehicle during launch.
Explorer 3 was an American artificial satellite launched into medium Earth orbit in 1958. It was the second successful launch in the Explorer program,and was nearly identical to the first U.S. satellite Explorer 1 in its design and mission.
The Vanguard rocket was intended to be the first launch vehicle the United States would use to place a satellite into orbit. Instead,the Sputnik crisis caused by the surprise launch of Sputnik 1 led the U.S.,after the failure of Vanguard TV-3,to quickly orbit the Explorer 1 satellite using a Juno I rocket,making Vanguard 1 the second successful U.S. orbital launch.
Explorer 5 was a United States satellite with a mass of 17.43 kg (38.4 lb). It was the last of the original series of Explorer satellites built,designed,and operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The Redstone Test Stand or Interim Test Stand was used to develop and test fire the Redstone missile,Jupiter-C sounding rocket,Juno I launch vehicle and Mercury-Redstone launch vehicle. It was declared an Alabama Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1979 and a National Historic Landmark in 1985. It is located at NASA's George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville,Alabama on the Redstone Arsenal,designated Building 4665. The Redstone missile was the first missile to detonate a nuclear weapon. Jupiter-C launched to test components for the Jupiter missile. Juno I put the first American satellite Explorer 1 into orbit. Mercury Redstone carried the first American astronaut Alan Shepard into space. The Redstone earned the name "Old Reliable" because of this facility and the improvements it made possible.
Juno II was an American space launch vehicle used during the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was derived from the Jupiter missile,which was used as the first stage.
Milton William Rosen was a United States Navy engineer and project manager in the US space program between the end of World War II and the early days of the Apollo Program. He led development of the Viking and Vanguard rockets,and was influential in the critical decisions early in NASA's history that led to the definition of the Saturn rockets,which were central to the eventual success of the American Moon landing program. He died of prostate cancer in 2014.
The Redstone family of rockets consisted of a number of American ballistic missiles,sounding rockets and expendable launch vehicles operational during the 1950s and 1960s. The first member of the Redstone family was the PGM-11 Redstone missile,from which all subsequent variations of the Redstone were derived. The Juno 1 version of the Redstone launched Explorer 1,the first U.S. orbital satellite in 1958 and the Mercury-Redstone variation carried the first two U.S. astronauts into space in 1961. The rocket was named for the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville,Alabama where it was developed.
Hydyne is a mixture of 60% unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) and 40% diethylenetriamine (DETA),developed in 1957 at Rocketdyne for use in liquid-fuel rockets. Hydyne was used as the fuel for the first stage of the Juno I rocket that launched Explorer 1,the first successful satellite launch conducted by the United States.
Explorer S-46 was a NASA satellite with a mass of 41 kg (90 lb). It was the last of the original series of Explorer satellites built,designed,and operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA).
Beacon was one of America's first satellite programs. A balloon satellite,its objective was to study atmospheric density at its orbital altitude and to be the first United States satellite visible to the naked eye. Booster problems caused both orbital attempts to end in failure.
