Cool Pic Archive Pages
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These images have been chosen for their uniqueness. Subject matter ranges from
historic events, to really cool phenomena in science and engineering, to relevant
place, to ingenious contraptions, to interesting products (which now has its own
dedicated Featured Product
category).
America's
first successful orbiting of a satellite launch happened on February 1, 1958 with
the launch of Explorer 1
atop a Juno 1
rocket. Our first attempted satellite launch was the
Vanguard TV3,
on December 6, 1957, but it unfortunately succumbed to a failed booster rocket (it
rose only 4 feet off the launch pad). Russia had already launched its
Sputnik 1
satellite on October 4, 1957, making it the very first manmade satellite to orbit
the earth - to the forever chagrin of U.S. scientists. Fortunately, advances occurred
rapidly for the U.S. space program after Explorer 1. In its first full decade
of existence, the
Goddard Space Flight Center, located in Greenbelt, Maryland, was
responsible for launching more than 100 different spacecraft carrying a wide variety
of weather, communications, space physics and astronomy experiments. The
chart to the right
appears in the history area of the NASA website.
 The
Space Race,
with only two primary contenders - the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. - unofficially began
on August 2, 1955, when the Soviet Union responded to America's announcement four
days earlier of intent to launch artificial satellites for the
International Geophysical Year. Not only did the Ruskies beat
us into orbit, but they also put the first man into space with
Yuri Gagarin,
on April, 12 1961. John Glenn made his successful orbit on February 20, 1962, in
the Friendship 7
Mercury capsule. They also beat us to the reach the moon with
a probe (Luna 1)
and to land on Venus (Venera 7). Ouch. Fortunately, we've been kicking their heinies
at space exploration since then :-)
Interestingly, NASA
(National Aeronautics and Space Administration) was not chartered until July 29,
1958, after orbit was achieved. Prior to then, its name was
NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics).
Posted February 25, 2019
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