Anniversary Events

The 60th anniversary of the launch of Explorer 1 was an opportunity to celebrate the achievement that sent America into the Space Age, as well as to embrace the promises of future exploration and discoveries yet unknown. Several events were held in historically significant venues, including the building in Washington where the iconic image of its developers hoisting a model of Explorer 1 at the press conference announcing the launch was taken, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California where the satellite was designed and built, and at the blockhouse and launch pad in Florida from which the rocket that carried Explorer 1 into space was launched.