First American Satellite Put Into Orbit
John glenn the first american astronaut to orbit the earth and a legendary figure in the american space flight program has died ohio gov.
First american satellite put into orbit. The first successful u s. Explorer 1 was launched on january 31 1958 at 22 48 eastern time february 1 03 48 utc. The first satellite sputnik 1 was put into orbit around earth and was therefore in geocentric orbit. Is successfully launched into space aboard the friendship 7 spacecraft on the first orbital.
The soviet union s sputnik 1 and 2 beginning the cold war space race between the two nations. Participation in the international geophysical year the mission followed the first two satellites the previous year. Geocentric orbits may be further classified by their altitude inclination and eccentricity. Explorer i s small package of instruments produced the first major discovery of the space age the van allen radiation.
John glenn becomes first american to orbit earth from cape canaveral florida john hershel glenn jr. History changed on october 4 1957 when the soviet union successfully launched sputnik i. Gagarin s craft took him in a full orbit around earth making. This is the most common type of orbit by far with approximately 1 886 artificial satellites orbiting the earth.
Or 183 9 pounds and took about 98 minutes to orbit earth on its elliptical path. Satellite explorer i was launched into earth orbit by the army on jan. Find out how to celebrate here and check out the history of explorer 1 the first u s. World space week 2020 will celebrate the impact of satellites on humanity from oct.
Explorer 1 was the first satellite launched by the united states and was part of the u s. Sputnik and the dawn of the space age. The 18 pound satellite had a cylindrical shape and was 80 inches long and six inches in diameter. The world s first artificial satellite was about the size of a beach ball 58 cm or 22 8 inches in diameter weighed only 83 6 kg.
Russian astronaut yuri gagarin became the first man launched into space on april 12 1961 beating alan shepard by less than a month.