<P> Following pressure by the American Rocket Society , the National Science Foundation , and the International Geophysical Year , military interest picked up and in early 1955 the Army and Navy were working on Project Orbiter , two competing programs : the army 's which involved using a Jupiter C rocket , and the civilian / Navy Vanguard Rocket , to launch a satellite . At first , they failed : initial preference was given to the Vanguard program , whose first attempt at orbiting a satellite resulted in the explosion of the launch vehicle on national television . But finally , three months after Sputnik 2 , the project succeeded ; Explorer 1 became the United States ' first artificial satellite on 31 January 1958 . </P>
<P> Following pressure by the American Rocket Society , the National Science Foundation , and the International Geophysical Year , military interest picked up and in early 1955 the Army and Navy were working on Project Orbiter , two competing programs : the army 's which involved using a Jupiter C rocket , and the civilian / Navy Vanguard Rocket , to launch a satellite . At first , they failed : initial preference was given to the Vanguard program , whose first attempt at orbiting a satellite resulted in the explosion of the launch vehicle on national television . But finally , three months after Sputnik 2 , the project succeeded ; Explorer 1 became the United States ' first artificial satellite on 31 January 1958 . </P>
when did the us send its first satellite into space
when did the us send its first satellite into space
31 January 1958
31 January 1958