Faculty members Keri Hoadley and Casey DeRoo were at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory last week for the UV Science and Instrumentation Workshop, which aims to define the technology and science for the Habitable Worlds Observatory, a future NASA flagship mission. Outside the public auditorium, JPL has an engineering model of Explorer 1 which has been restored and mounted on a mock-up of the rocket that delivered it into orbit. It was a great opportunity to have University of Iowa faculty visit our legacy of Explorer 1 while “on the job” for their current research!
About Explorer 1
"The successful orbiting of Explorer I in 1958 is one of the landmarks in the technical and scientific history of the human race. Its instrumentation revealed the existence of radiation belts of the earth and opened up a massive new field of scientific exploration in space. It inspired an entire generation of young men and women in the United States to higher achievement and propelled the western world into the space age."
- University of Iowa Prof. James Van Allen.
Explorer 1 successfully lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Jan. 31, 1958. At a jubilant early-morning press conference a few hours later, William Pickering, Wernher von Braun and Van Allen hoisted a model of Explorer 1 over their heads in what has become an iconic photograph.
