Explorer 1: The Beginning of the Space Age (2007)
• December 1st, 2007 • 0h 53min
Documentary
Overview
"Explorer 1" is the second episode of "Beginnings Of The Space Age". The 60-minute documentary reveals how JPL and the U.S. Army could have been the first to place a satellite into Earth orbit, had they only been given the chance. That opportunity was lost when the Eisenhower administration, unsure of what the Soviet reaction would be to a satellite launched (in part) by the U.S. Army military, hesitated and assigned the project to a civilian-led program called Vanguard. The Soviet Union launched Sputnik in October 1957, shocking the world and creating the "Race for Space" in the midst of the Cold War. Only after the Vanguard rocket exploded on the launch pad were JPL and the U.S. Army given its chance. The result was Explorer 1, the first successful U.S. satellite, which also achieved the first space science results.
Make sure to check your pop-up blocker!!
Trailer
Similar Movies
Road to the Stars
Released on: 1957-11-09
Documentary, Science Fiction
This film consists of three parts. The first dramatizes the life of the founder of Soviet astronauti...
400 Years of the Telescope
Released on: 2009-01-06
Documentary
A documentary chronicling the history of the telescope from the time of Galileo. Featuring interview...
Mission Saturn
Released on: 2017-09-15
Documentary
NASA's biggest spacecraft, Cassini, plunges into Saturn in the final act of a 20-year mission showca...
The Lucy Mission: Origins of the Solar System
Released on: 2022-01-03
Documentary
For two and a half years we followed the scientific team of the NASA Lucy Mission a mission that wil...
Deep Sky
Released on: 2023-12-12
Documentary
Explores the $10 billion JWST's engineering and construction process, historic Dec. 25, 2021 launch,...
The Armstrong Tapes
Released on: 2019-07-08
Documentary
Never-before-heard audio tapes recorded with Neil Armstrong during the final years of his life revea...
The Day We Walked on the Moon
Released on: 2019-07-08
Documentary
On July 16, 1969, hundreds of thousands of spectators and an army of reporters gathered at Cape Kenn...
De Charles de Gaulle à Emmanuel Macron, les gardiens de l'empire
Released on: 2022-03-09
Documentary, TV Movie, History
When We Were Apollo
Released on: 2019-07-18
Documentary
Who were the men and women of Project Apollo? Where are they today? What do they think of the extrao...
Apollo: The Forgotten Films
Released on: 2019-07-20
Documentary, TV Movie
Recently discovered footage reveals the secret history of NASA's first landing on the moon, and usin...
Apollo's New Moon
Released on: 2019-07-20
Documentary
This extraordinary film features NASA film footage enhanced by AI-based software and other image pro...
Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo
Released on: 2017-03-14
Documentary
At the heart of the Apollo program was the special team in Mission Control who put a man on the moon...
Apollo 17: Final Footprints On The Moon
Released on: 2005-07-16
Documentary
The Apollo 17 mission was the final opportunity to collect first hand information about the history ...
Space Station 3D
Released on: 2002-04-17
Documentary
Some 220 miles above Earth lies the International Space Station, a one-of-a-kind outer space laborat...
Cosmic Voyage
Released on: 1996-08-09
Documentary
The Academy Award® nominee Cosmic Voyage combines live action with state-of-the-art computer-generat...
Blue Planet
Released on: 1990-01-01
Documentary
From the unique vantage point of 200 miles above Earth's surface, we see how natural forces - volcan...
Space Dogs
Released on: 2019-08-09
Documentary
Laika, a stray dog, was the first living being to be sent into space and thus to a certain death. A ...
The Farthest
Released on: 2018-03-15
Documentary
The captivating tales of the people and events behind one of humanity's greatest achievements in exp...
In the Shadow of the Moon
Released on: 2007-01-19
Documentary, History
Archival material from the original NASA film footage – much of it seen for the first time – plus in...