Lee High School - Huntsville Alabama Alumni

Explorer 1 - A Half Century Later

Facts extracted from an article by Alan Ladwig

Chief of Washington Operations

Posted on Space.Com at 11:37 am ET

(From a posting on 31 January 2000)

Using a modified Jupiter-C rocket, the Army team, headed by Wernher von Braun, launched the Explorer 1 satellite into orbit on January 31, 1958. With this launch, America was finally able to match the Soviet Unions stunning achievement, demonstrated twice within the previous three months, of placing an artificial satellite into orbit.

The Soviets had surprised the world, and scored a significant public relations victory, with the launch of the world’s first satellite, Sputnik 1, on October 4, 1957. The Eisenhower Administration refused to bend to public and political pressure to mount a crash program in response to Sputnik. Instead, the Administration stuck with a plan already in place for the Navy to take America into space on the shoulders of the Vanguard launch vehicle.

Von Braun had always believed his Army team could have beaten the Soviets into space had they been allowed to fully develop his plans. Following a briefing with senior Department of Defense officials on the day after Sputnik 1, von Braun boasted that his team could be ready for launch within 60 days. His military boss, General John B. Medaris, was not quite as confident and suggested that 30 days should be added to von Braun’s ambitious estimate.

A month after Sputnik 1, the Russians were back on the front pages of the world press with another successful satellite in orbit. Sputnik 2 outweighed its predecessor by almost 1,000 pounds, and even carried a passenger -- a mixed breed dog named Laika.

Public reaction was again swift and angry. With not one, but two successful launches by our Cold War competitors, the visions of Wernher von Braun were suddenly much in demand. Life magazine put him on the cover of the November 18, 1957, issue. Referring to him as "The Seer of Space," Life noted that Washington should have listened to him months earlier when had warned about what the Russians were up to, instead of dismissing his remarks "as if made by a tiresome crackpot."

The satellite was built and developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, under the leadership of William Pickering. James Van Allen, a physicist of the State University of Iowa, and his graduate student, Wei Ching Lin, developed the scientific instruments carried in the satellite a set of cosmic ray Geiger counters.

Von Braun was not on hand at the Air Force Missile and Test Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, for the actual launch. Along with Pickering and Van Allen, he had been directed to standby at the Pentagon. In the event of a successful launch, the Army wanted the trio readily available to meet with the national press.

By January 29, 1958, the vehicle was on the pad and ready for launch, but strong winds at high altitudes led to a scrubbed mission. An attempt the next day brought similar results. Finally, on January 31 at 11:45 p.m., the four-stage rocket lifted off the pad and roared into space.

Though confident that the launch was a success, von Braun waited for an hour and a half before he declared victory. When a West Coast tracking station confirmed that Explorer 1 was indeed in orbit, the United States finally had something to celebrate.

Launching 18 pounds (8.2 kilograms) of scientific instruments may not have been as impressive to some as the deployment of 1,200-pound Soviet satellite carrying a dog. However, as it turned out, the instruments designed by Van Allen discovered a zone of radiation around the planet. This discovery, now known as the Van Allen belt, is recognized as the greatest scientific contribution to the International Geophysical Year investigations.

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The Rocket Kids

by Tommy Towery

Class of '64

We were the Rocket Kids. There’s no doubt in my mind about that statement. I know of no other group of people our age, besides those of us living in Huntsville, Alabama, that knew as much about the Space Race as we did or lived it day-to-day in the manner in which we did. Other boys my age in other places across the country were building models of cars and airplanes and ships and Famous Monsters of Filmland, but we were building Nike, Nike-Ajax, Little John, Honest John, Corporal, Redstone, and Jupiter-C rockets. Who else can remember the rumbles of rocket motor test firings and how the windows would rattle in our houses and things on table would vibrate and often fall off the table and break? We didn’t care if they broke or not, it was exciting.

As the anniversary of the launch of the U.S.’s first satellite nears, I got to thinking about the night that happened. I still lived on Clinton Street, just a couple of blocks from Downtown Huntsville. I remember that it was late one night when horns started blowing and church bells started ringing. It didn’t take long to turn on the radio and find out what all the excitement was about. A rocket developed in Huntsville had put the United States back on a level playing field with the Soviet Union. We had entered space.

As I was thinking about this, I stopped and tried to remember when was the last time that I heard church bells ringing in the middle of the night because of some patriotic event. For the life of me I think it was that night back in 1958. I was not living in Huntsville when man set foot on the moon so I don’t know if it happened then or not. I was in Sacramento, California, when that event took place and I remember watching it on TV, but I don’t remember hearing church bells ring. Who got up in the middle of the night and got the idea of running down to their church and ringing the bells anyway. Boy, how politically incorrect would that be today? Ringing church bells for a celebration of a government event? What a great memory to pass along to our grandchildren.

I remember that even at 11 years old, I knew something important had just happened, and I celebrated with Grape Kool Aid. I swear I did. And from that moment on I wanted to be a rocket scientist. I never reched that goal, but I am friends with a lot of people who did. I am proud to say that, just as I am proud to brag that I went to school with the children of Werner Von Braun’s rocket team. I also brag that I was once an escort for him at a Boy Scout Jamboree and was tasked with keeping autograph hounds away. I did such a good job that I did not even get one for myself. I also remember standing in front of the brand new Martin Theater on Washington Street and seeing him and his family at the Southern Gala Premier of “I Aim at the Stars,” which we have already discussed in Lee’s Traveller.

Wouldn’t it be great for some event today to be so important that it would make you want to ring the church bells to celebrate it? In my mature adult life, I don’t think I will ever see that moment again.

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Subject:Book Signing Event

Carole Bradshaw Choomack

Class of ‘65

Hi, Tommy,

Thanks for posting the link to Amazon for my Dad’s book, "Rockets, Reactors and Computers Define the Twentieth Century." Dad will be at Barnes & Noble, 5850-A University Drive, Huntsville from 1-4 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 26th, 2008 for a book-signing. This is in conjunction with the celebrations in Huntsville the next week marking the 50th anniversary of America in Space.

I remember the celebrations when our first satellite was launched and how exciting it was to be in Huntsville in those early days of the “space race”. I wish I could be there this month, too. I especially enjoyed the article this week.

Thanks for keeping us all connected.

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Subject:Huntsville

Paula Spencer Kephart

Class of '65

I can remember the sesquicentenial of Huntsville. It was in 1955, was in 3rd grade. Many of my classmates, the Class of '66 ( skipped 6th grade, so graduated in '65), participated in many activities and parades downtown around the old Courthouse. The men grew beards, dressed as people did in the early 1800's and the women and girls dressed in long dresses. It was a wonderful time to grow up. Most of the children of the German scientists went to LHS, rather than HHS.

Dwight, my late husband, was friends with Walt Wiesmann, one of the original scientists. He really liked and respected him very much; he spoke of him often even up to the time of his death. Dwight was a very discerning man after his formal education, and was very choosy about his friends. He grew to become a great man and made many contributions to this community and Decatur during the 15 years we lived there.

It is so very sad to think of him, especially, and many others who came from LHS that I knew since elementary school who have passed away. One never really understands that until they have experienced it. It changes us, and hopefully, for the better. All of us who have lost a mate to death understand the hole in the heart it leaves forever. My prayers to all who have lost their loved ones. This last year has been especially difficult for my family, but we survived and we will continue to do so. Again, special thoughts and prayers to all who have lost.

Huntsville is a unique place, so unlike most of the Southern cities; it is a cosmopolitan area which most people come to love. It will always be home to me since my family settled here before the county or city was even incorporated. Yes, there were some Native Americans, but also, just average citizens. The families have come here from Virginia. and Tennessee.

Hope All have a Happy 2008!

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Racing for Space

During the heat of the space race in the 1960's, NASA decided it needed a ball point pen to write in the zero gravity confines of its space capsules.

After considerable research and development, the Astronaut Pen was developed at a cost of $1 million. The pen worked and also enjoyed some modest success as a novelty item back here on earth.

The Soviet Union, faced with the same problem, used a pencil.

*****

Scientists at NASA have developed a gun built specifically to launch dead chickens at the windshields of airliners, military jets and the space shuttle, all traveling at maximum velocity. The idea is to simulate the frequent incidents of collisions with airborne fowl to test the strength of the windshields.

British engineers heard about the gun and were eager to test it on the windshields of their new high speed trains. Arrangements were made, and when the gun was fired, the engineers stood shocked as the chicken hurtled out of the barrel, crashed into the shatterproof shield, smashed it to smithereens, crashed through the control console, snapped the engineer's backrest in two and embedded itself in the back wall of the cabin.

Horrified Britons sent NASA the disastrous results of the experiment, along with the designs of the windshield, and begged the U.S. scientists for suggestions. NASA's response was just one sentence, "THAW THE CHICKEN!"

*****

An astronaut in space was asked by a reporter, "How do you feel?"

"How would you feel," the astronout replied, "if you were stuck here, on top of 20,000 parts - each one supplied by the lowest bidder?"

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