TIROS 1 — The Weather Eye
The first weather satellite launched yesterday. TIROS 1 is photographing cloud cover from orbit and transmitting the images back to Earth. This changes weather forecasting.
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The Mercury Astronauts on Television
The Mercury Seven have been everywhere this past year — magazine covers, television appearances, press conferences. I've been watching them carefully.
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Luna 2 Hits the Moon
The Soviet Union crashed a spacecraft into the Moon yesterday. Luna 2. The first human-made object to reach another world.
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The Seven
NASA introduced the Mercury astronauts yesterday and I had to read the names three times before I believed it.
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Luna 1 Escapes Earth
The Soviets launched Luna 1 yesterday. It missed the Moon by 3,700 miles — then kept going, escaping Earth gravity. The first spacecraft in solar orbit.
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NASA Is Open for Business
As of yesterday, the United States has a proper civilian space agency. NASA opened its doors, and with it, Project Mercury was announced.
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What NACA Was, and What NASA Will Be
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is going to absorb the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which has been America's aeronautics research organization for 43 years. Here's why that matters.
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Explorer 1 — We’re In
Last night the United States finally joined the space age. After Vanguard blew up on the pad in December, I had genuinely started to worry.
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Laika
They sent a dog. A living dog, orbiting the Earth right now. And everyone knows she's not coming back.
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The Beep That Changed Everything
Last night I stayed up past midnight listening to a radio broadcast I still can't quite believe was real.
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