Discovery Channel

NASA 50th Anniversary Early satellites

Early satellites

(NASA)
NASA responded to the Soviet success of Sputnik by launching a number of Earth-orbiting satellites. The first was Explorer 1, equipped with a cosmic ray detector. The data from Explorer 1 was used to identify the Van Allen radiation belts and the impacts of micrometeorites. In 1970, after more than 58,000 orbits, Explorer 1 burned up in the Earth's atmosphere.

Following the initial success of the Explorer satellites, NASA had a run of failures with their Pioneer probes. In addition, the Soviets had successfully sent the first probe, Lunar 2, to the Moon. NASA had to wait until 1958 and 1959 before Pioneers 3 and 4 successfully transmitted radiation data and images of the lunar surface back to Earth. This late-coming success fuelled NASA’s Herculean ambition to land the first man on the Moon.
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