Florida Historical Markers Programs - Marker Detail

Description: Side One: In 1955, President Dwight Eisenhower approved a plan to orbit a satellite during the International Geophysical Year, a period hailed as an unprecedented international effort involving scientists from 67 countries to advance scientific studies of Earth. The United States entered the Space Age at 10:48 p.m. on January 31, 1958, when a Juno I rocket lifted off from Pad-A at Launch Complex 26 carrying Explorer I. It was not the nation’s first attempt to launch a satellite, but it was the first to successfully orbit Earth. The countdown was conducted from the Launch Complex 26 Blockhouse. The mission was a cooperative effort by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, the U.S. Air Force, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and other academic and aerospace entities. Weighing 30 pounds, the satellite carried instruments to measure temperature, micrometeorite impacts, and radiation. Data from Explorer I confirmed suspected areas of intense radiation around Earth. The areas were named the Van Allen radiation belts, in honor of Dr. James Van Allen, who designed the satellite’s equipment. Explorer I transmitted data for 105 days and completed 58,376 orbits around Earth before re-entering the atmosphere and burning up in 1970. Side Two: The Soviet Union launched the world’s first satellite, Sputnik 1, on October 4, 1957. A second satellite, Sputnik 2, followed on November 3, 1957, and carried the first live animal into orbit, a dog named Laika. The United States attempted its first satellite launch using a Vanguard rocket on December 6, 1957, from Complex 18. It rose just four feet off the launch pad before it exploded. Fifty-five days later, Explorer I was successfully launched on a Juno I rocket. To determine if life, including human life, could be sustained in a space environment, two bio-flights carrying rhesus and squirrel monkeys were launched from Complex 26. Gordo was launched on December 13, 1958, then Able and Baker on May 28, 1959. Complex 26 also served as the site of numerous Jupiter missile launches as part of NATO’s combat training program. Italian and Turkish missile crews used the facility from 1961-1963. Complex 26 hosted 36 launches from 1956-1963. Following its deactivation, plans were formulated to make it a museum. In February 1968, the Blockhouse opened to the public; subsequently educating millions of visitors about aerospace history and modern spaceflight. This area is now known as the Air Force Space & Missile Museum.