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Creation astronomy from a rocket scientist by David Coppedge Posted on 10-14-19 Readers may remember our 2015 interview with Dr Henry Richter,1 the development manager of Explorer 1, America’s first satellite. 90 years of age, Dr Richter recently drove from his home 120 miles away to deliver a speech at the 60th anniversary of Explorer 1 at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). On that day in January 2018, he shared his unique insider’s perspective about the mission that launched America into the space race. Most employees at JPL working on missions today now have no memory of the early days...

LOS ANGELES – After the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the United States gave a 90-day deadline to the Army and a little-known research lab in California to send up its own satellite. Seemingly against all odds, the project was completed in 84 days. On Jan. 31, 1958, a knot of rocket scientists and engineers waited anxiously as the satellite, Explorer 1, blasted into orbit, launching the U.S. into the space race. Historians see the 50th anniversary of Explorer 1 Thursday as a chance to go beyond the Reader's Digest version of events. “It's been cemented in all the popular accounts,”...

NASA Partners With Discovery Communications for 50th Anniversary WASHINGTON - NASA and Discovery Communications will join in a broad media partnership to commemorate the space program's 50th anniversary. The space agency, which was created by the National Aeronautics and Space Act, began operations on Oct. 1, 1958. The announcement was made Wednesday in New York at a premiere screening of "In the Shadow of the Moon," a film in which crew members from NASA's Apollo missions tell their story in their own words. Discovery Channel will air the world television premiere of the film in the summer of 2008. "This...