MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
Contact: Mary Beth Murrill
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 14, 1998
U.S. SPACE PROGRAM TURNS 40 WITH ANNIVERSARY OF EXPLORER 1
The U.S. space program turns 40 on Saturday, January 31 --
and the public is invited to share in the celebration when space
pioneers and others gather at Caltech's Beckman Auditorium at 8
p.m. to revisit the historic launch of the Explorer 1 satellite,
developed by Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) four
decades ago, before NASA was even born. The event is free of
charge.
"Explorer 1: Forty Years After, A Look Back and a Look
Ahead" will feature Dr. William Pickering, the former director of
JPL and a pioneering space telecommunications researcher who led
the Laboratory's work in the Explorer era. He will describe the
political, technical and scientific challenges and benefits of
the Eisenhower-era race into space after the Soviet Union stunned
the world with the launch of Sputnik in 1957. JPL's current
director, Dr. Edward C. Stone, will follow with a presentation on
all the exciting space discoveries made since then, and offer his
vision for future explorations.
Caltech's JPL was still operated as a research laboratory
for the U.S. Army when it was selected in the autumn of 1957 to
develop the first U.S. satellite, science package, communications
system and the high-speed upper stages for the Army's Redstone
rocket that would launch the tiny, 9-kilogram (20-pound) Explorer
1. JPL and the Army completed the assignment and successfully
launched the satellite in less than three months.
The intensive effort was accomplished by a team of experts
from U.S. academia and the military, along with top World War II
German rocket scientists such as Dr. Werner von Braun, who
emigrated to the U.S. in the postwar years to help lead
development of American rocket capability. A globally linked
telecommunications system developed by JPL tracked Explorer 1 and
received its scientific data as it circled the Earth. Amateur
radio operators around the world were invited to listen in on
Explorer 1's radio communications, including one key amateur
radio shack operated largely by JPL ham radio operators at the
Los Angeles County Sheriff's substation in Temple City, about 24
kilometers (15 miles) from JPL.
In late 1958, JPL was reassigned from the U.S. Army to NASA
when the civilian space agency was created, and has led the
world's exploration of space with robotic spacecraft since then.
Still operated as a division of Caltech, JPL has sent spacecraft
to all of the known planets except Pluto, and this year will
launch important astronomy and planetary exploration missions to
comets, asteroids and Mars, along with many Earth-observing
efforts.
For more information about the January 31 event at Caltech,
contact JPL's Public Services Office at (818) 354-0112.
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1/14/98 MBM
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