This weeks picture is of the First Explorer which was launched 5o years ago on January 31, 1958. This satellite marked the begining of space exploration for the United States. Explorer I was launched by Army Ballistic Missile Agency and weighed only thirty pounds. It orbited the Earth and stopped about a month after it was launched but remained in orbit until March of 1970. The satellite carried instruments to measure temperatures, and micrometeorite impacts, along with an experiment designed by James A. Van Allen, to measure the density of electrons and ions in space. Because of this expiriment it led to the discovery of a belt of high energy electrons and ions trapped in the magnetosphere circling the Earth and now known as the Van Allen Radiation Belt.
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