Explorer 1 Team: A Successful Launch

A model of Explorer 1 is held by (left-right) JPL Director William Pickering, University of Iowa physicist James Van Allen and Wernher von Braun from the Army Ballistic Missile Agency. The team was gathered at a 1 a.m. news conference at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington to announce the satellite’s successful launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Jan. 31, 1958, at 10:48 p.m.