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 ...

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 ...

Explorer 1 was front-page news across the U.S. The first successful U.S. satellite was often called a "moon" or a "man-made moon" then. American journalist and anchorman Walter Cronkite uses models to ...

Fifty years ago Thursday, a 30-pound satellite called Explorer 1 joined Sputnik in orbit around the Earth, sending the United States into the space race. Replicas of the historic spacecraft are on ...

Wednesday marks the United States’ 60th anniversary in space with the launch of Explorer 1. The success of the fast-tracked mission, which carried the country’s first satellite into orbit, helped ...

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 ...

REDSTONE ARSENAL, Alabama -- Since America's beginning, the U.S. Army led the nation in exploration of the continent, and this year it celebrates the 60th anniversary of leading the nation in the ...

Explorer 1 became the first successfully launched satellite by the United States when it was sent to space on 31 January 1958. A quick response to the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik 1, Explorer 1’s ...

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 ...

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of America’s first satellite, Explorer 1. This was a response to Sputnik, launched by Soviets a few months before. The whole story is actually a bit ...