LAUNCH OF EXPLORER 1 SATELLITE 1958 "THE BIG PICTURE" EPISODE 71512

This episode of the U.S. Army's TV program "The Big Picture" deals with the the first satellite of the United States Explorer 1, launched as part of its participation in the International Geophysical Year. The mission followed the first two satellites the previous year; the Soviet Union's Sputnik 1 and 2, beginning the Cold War Space Race between the two nations. Army General John Medaris headed the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, which oversaw both JPL and Wernher von Braun’s rocket team in Huntsville, Ala. JPL and the Army teamed up to launch Explorer 1. The Huntsville team provided the first-stage rocket, while JPL built the upper stages and the satellite that carried the science payload. Medaris played a pivotal role in advancing the development of Explorer 1.
Explorer 1 was launched on January 31, 1958 at 22:48 Eastern Time (equal to February 1, 03:48 UTC) atop the first Juno booster from LC-26 at the Cape Canaveral Missile Annex, Florida. It was the first spacecraft to detect the Van Allen radiation belt, returning data until its batteries were exhausted after nearly four months. It remained in orbit until 1970, and has been followed by more than 90 scientific spacecraft in the Explorer series.
Explorer 1 was given Satellite Catalog Number 4, and the Harvard designation 1958 Alpha 1, the forerunner to the modern International Designator.
To the surprise of mission experts, Explorer 1 changed rotation axis after launch. The elongated body of the spacecraft had been designed to spin about its long (least-inertia) axis but refused to do so, and instead started precessing due to energy dissipation from flexible structural elements. Later it was understood that on general grounds, the body ends up in the spin state that minimizes the kinetic rotational energy for a fixed angular momentum (this being the maximal-inertia axis). This motivated the first further development of the Eulerian theory of rigid body dynamics after nearly 200 years-to address this kind of momentum-preserving energy dissipation.
Sometimes the instrumentation would report the expected cosmic ray count (approximately 30 counts per second) but sometimes it would show a peculiar zero counts per second. The University of Iowa (under Van Allen) noted that all of the zero counts per second reports were from an altitude of 2,000+ km (1,250+ miles) over South America, while passes at 500 km (310 mi) would show the expected level of cosmic rays. Later, after Explorer 3, it was concluded that the original Geiger counter had been overwhelmed ("saturated") by strong radiation coming from a belt of charged particles trapped in space by the Earth's magnetic field. This belt of charged particles is now known as the Van Allen radiation belt. The discovery was considered to be one of the outstanding discoveries of the International Geophysical Year.
The acoustic micrometeorite detector detected 145 impacts of cosmic dust in 78,750 seconds. This calculates to an average impact rate of 8.0×10−3 impacts m−2 s−1 over the twelve-day period (29 impacts per hour per square meter).
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2K. For more information visit www.PeriscopeFilm.com

[@altfactor]

What this program didn't mention was that the VonBraun team had the Jupiter-C under development during the early-to-mid 1950's as a rocket to test missile nose cones and that the VonBraun team proposed using the Jupiter-C for a satellite plan called "Project Orbiter". But President Eisenhower rejected it in favor of Vanguard. But given that Jupiter-C was being built anyway, it was available on short notice to launch a satellite. The Vanguard failure was on December 6th, 1957, a month after VonBraun for the satellite go-ahead. I'm to young to recall this first-hand, but I have heard that both the Vanguard failure and the Explorer 1 launchings were broadcast live on network TV, but with Cape Canaveral still a military base then, cameras with long-range zoom lenses (and network commentators) were set-up just outside the gates.

[@Valery0p5]

16:15 launch. The enthusiasm in those voices still gets me.

[@ChildovGhad]

They were overjoyed that it didn't blow up on the launch pad. That was a common outcome back then.

[@Nighthawke70]

The ABMA's Juno I and II were a closed cycle lifespan launch vehicle family. Meaning, they could not upgrade or improve on the overall design, Not unlike the Centaur, Titan, Atlas, or even the crazy-minded Vanguard. They stuck a bigger engine in Vanguard and called it Able. You know how the others evolved. Oh, and before you argue with me about it. Explorer I was the first INSTRUMENTED Man-Made satellite, Sputnik was merely a radio beacon, little else.

[@carolus3701]

Let's go, Wernher! (2:12)

[@pretoasted]

The look on Wernher's face is priceless; He looks like a kid on Christmas. "I get to play with more rockets?!?"

[@5Andysalive]

Love the "headset" of the guy around 14:00

[@Habibi46611]

Mr. Moser

[@GigaChaadam]

This is such an incredible watch.

[@pretoasted]

I love MSGT Stuart Queen... and that 'stache.

[@phonotical]

They didn't play the telemetry audio, that's disappointing

[@bruce92106]

Oh come on Mr uploader person! Please fix-enhance the audio on so we can all HEAR it before you upload. Actually this was probably classified at one time I'm sure. But there's all kinds of (free) audio software out there to enhance and raise volume levels on old film clips like this before letting YT view it.

[@whirledpeas3477]

Strange, I can hear it fine.

[@onedumbbaby]

Honest question...why is the very top of the nose of the rocket spinning around like crazy??? Huh?

[@nolancain8792]

Spin stabilization. Back then there weren’t computers to stabilize upper stages. So they spun them up and used Sergeant Solid Rockets to boost payloads like Pioneer 4.

[@TheManLab7]

Ditto

[@SystemsPlanet]

I remember vividly seeing an image from one of these satellites that showed a large hole in the top of the earth that NASA claimed was due to the way the they scanned the Earth. The fact that the image has been memory holed tells you everything you need to know.

[@TheManLab7]

Are you a flat earther by any chance?

[@tnwhiskey68]

​@@TheManLab7doesn't sound like a flat earther comment.

[@unr74]

Kurt Debus -13:49

[@gilligancharliebrown399]

Mars needs women!

[@Sherwoody]

Especially Bunny Cash and Yvonne Craig.

[@johnnypruitt832]

I am Crash

[@eddiekulp1241]

Screwed around with vanguard rocket to long and let those russians beat us , embarrassing

[@simonshack1]

Can't people see that this is a totally staged Hollywood production - featuring a bunch of actors and actresses cast in the role of NASA employees?

[@josephcope7637]

Simon Shack No ... the sensible ones among us can see a lot of real U. S. Army personnel whose dedication and hard work made the launch of Explorer 1 a success. NASA wasn't created until five months after this launch. What proof can you show that this video is anything other than the work of camera crews assigned to record an actual historical event? Put up or shut up.

[@ADANTHEGIANT]

Joseph Cope you want proof this isn’t a recording of an actual historical event? How about at 14:00 theres the bald guy doing the checks. Then it has various cuts, from the countdown, in front of the bald guy, behind the bald guy left shoulder. Every shot that’s documenting this “real event” would have one of the other cameras in it’s shot...considering the countdown keeps a pace of cuts the doesn’t make sense....it’s in front of the guy-now behind him-In front of the guy. With the “other” camera not in the shot of the “other”. This is fake. They are a lot better at this now. So it’s funny watching the old stuff. I love how they try to make it look “advanced”

[@uberkloden]

@@ADANTHEGIANT The truth of the matter was a group of ex German engineers ran the launch.

[@ADANTHEGIANT]

@@uberkloden what does that have to do with the lack of cameras in the other cameras shots? Isn’t it a recording of an actual countdown? “Let’s go Werner” please someone tell me this isn’t even humored of an actual event. Because governments actual recording of a briefing of important information, that’s like video of the bush administration showing a video of them deciding to go to war with Iraq…people are not this stupid…I will not accept that, no way

[@dansv1]

@@ADANTHEGIANT Are think that the film crew asked participants to recreate some scenes for the documentary. It’s not all or nothing. Cinéma vérité or scripted and staged with actors playing roles.