Explorer 1, the Van Allen Belts and a Look to the Future

NASA science leadership participated in a daylong conference looking at the history of and future potential for Earth science and heliophysics, hosted by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM). A "special guest" at the event was one of the 20 original Explorer 1 models, brought to NASEM's Great Hall ― the same location as the iconic photo of then-JPL Director William Pickering, University of Iowa physicist James Van Allen and Wernher von Braun from the Army Ballistic Missile Agency holding a model of the satellite over their heads as they announced the mission's success.