Anniversary: Explorer 1

The race to orbit ended with a victory by Russia's Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957. But on this day, January 31, in 1958, the Unoted States answered with Explorer 1. Erika Maurer and I were proud to write the history of this dramatic contest that, as Wernher von Braun put it, "...open to man the gates of heaven." (His Soviet counterpart, Sergei Korolev, said it similarly: "The road to the stars is now open!")

Read the story here.