us sent its first satellite into space on 31 january 1958.
when did the us send its first satellite into space?
31 january 1958
sputnik i, the first artificial satellite of the earth, was launched by the soviet union on 4 october 1957, energizing america to do likewise. after the failure of their viking rocket in its first satellite launch attempt, this mission was taken away from the u.s. naval research laboratory and given to the von braun team at abma. on 31 january 1958, america's first satellite, explorer i, was placed into orbit. beco had an involvement in this historic effort, providing support in the design and testing of both the vehicle and the payload.
milton k. cummings
the first images from space were taken on sub-orbital flights. the u.s-launched v-2 flight on october 24, 1946 took one image every 1.5 seconds. with an apogee of 65 miles (105 km), these photos were from five times higher than the previous record, the 13.7 miles (22 km) by the explorer ii balloon mission in 1935. the first satellite (orbital) photographs of earth were made on august 14, 1959 by the u.s. explorer 6. the first satellite photographs of the moon might have been made on october 6, 1959 by the soviet satellite luna 3, on a mission to photograph the far side of the moon. the blue marble photograph was taken from space in 1972, and has become very popular in the media and among the public. also in 1972 the united states started the landsat program, the largest program for acquisition of imagery of earth from space. landsat data continuity mission, the most recent landsat satellite, was launched on 11 february 2013. in 1977, the first real time satellite imagery was acquired by the united states's kh-11 satellite system.
satellite imagery