Explorer I (the first US satellite to orbit the Earth) was launched on January 31, 1958, and discovered the radiation belts known as the Van Allen Belt. Additional satellites were launched to study the radiation. Unfortunately Explorer 2 (March 5, 1958) failed to reach orbit. Explorer 3, also known as Gamma 1, was successfuly orbited on March 26, 1958, becoming the second US satellite in space.
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The first artificial satellite launched by the United States of America was the Explorer 1. It was launched on January 31, 1958.
* Artificial Earth satellite Sputnik 1The first successful satellite launched by the Russians (The Soviet Union at the time) was Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957. It was released during the Cold War and it caused a space race between the Americans and the Soviet Union. Apart from being the first satellite to be launched into space, it also helped us to better understand the upper atmosphere, including the radiation belts and the ionosphere. It traveled 18000 miles per hour so it only took about 92 minutes to travel around the Earth.* Russian satellite countriesCountries of Eastern Europe adopted Communist governments following World War II and were called "satellite" countries of the USSR, which was dominated by Russia. They were collectively known as the Warsaw Pact countries for the military treaty to which they were signatories. The first country was Poland, partly occupied by the USSR in a 1939 arrangement with Nazi Germany.
Sputnik was connected to the Cold War as a test of technological prowess between the United States and the Soviet Union to show who could be the first to create a man made satellite orbit the Earth.
Sputnik was the first spacecraft put into orbit, and was done by the Russians during the "space race".It was important to America because we were in competition with the Russians and wanted to get there first.
Cold war is a term that is described by an unarmed conflict. The cold war between US and Soviet Union was based on distrust between two nations. large amount of propaganda was used to inform the public about this conflict. It was also a war between communism and a free market.
Many photographic images were taken from the edge of space as both the USSR and US launched captured German V-2 rockets after World War 2. One of the first, showing the curve of the Earth, was taken on October 24, 1946. The first photo taken by an orbital satellite was by Explorer VI in 1959, showing a section of the Pacific Ocean. It was a black-and-white image with very poor detail, but subsequent images (many of them classified) had considerably better enhancement.