Video: '1st US Satellite: Explorer 1 Launch 1958 NASA; Spacecraft & Launch Vehicle Preparation'

(Thursday, January 31, 1958, 10:48:16 p.m. EST) — The United States entered the Space Age tonight with its first successful launch of a satellite into orbit, Explorer I, from LC-26 at the Cape Canaveral Missile Annex in Florida.

The mission followed the first two satellites the previous year; the Soviet Union’s Sputnik 1 and 2, beginning the Cold War Space Race between the two nations.