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[silent]

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The morning of November 8, 1957,
at Huntsville, Alabama.

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A sudden meeting has been called
by General John B. Medaris,

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commanding general of the Army's
Ballistic Missile Agency.

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I have a very important
announcement for you.

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We've been assigned the
mission of launching

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a scientific Earth satellite.

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And we will use the Jupiter-C
configuration as a carrier

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that we developed along with the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

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I promised the Secretary of the
Army that we would be ready

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in 90 days or less.

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Let's go, Wehrner!

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Meanwhile, far across the
country

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at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory,

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a sprawling 80-acre research
and development complex

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in Pasadena, California,

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scientists and engineers were
racing toward the same deadline.

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Ninety days to put a
satellite into orbit.

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Their job: furnish the
high-speed upper stages

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to take over after the first
stage powered the satellite

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to the prescribed
distance from the Earth.

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The beams of powerful
searchlights

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light up the missile.

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The drama approaches
the final act,

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the Army's first attempt to
fire a manmade moon

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into orbit.

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Late evening, Friday,
January 31, 1958,

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in a blockhouse at Canaveral,

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the countdown to Explorer 1.

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10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

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Fire command Fire command.

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[unintelligible]

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[roar of rocket]

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[Teletype sound]

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The missile is in flight.

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But it will take
another hour and a half

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to know whether the
satellite is in orbit.

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About midnight General Medaris
finally called his assistant,

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Colonel Leonard Orman.

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Hello, Len.

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You can send this off
to the Secretary:

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that our satellite is
definitely on orbit!

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Twenty minutes later,

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Dr. Porter opened the
question-and-answer session

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by introducing three
of the key men

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in the success story
of Explorer 1.

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Well, the question is:

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has any form of life been
placed in the satellite?

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I think I could answer
that one almost myself.

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Not intentionally.
[Laughter]

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May... maybe we have a
Florida cockroach inside.

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We don't know.
[Laughter]

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“Just one more!”

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came the inevitable plea
from the photographers.

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And, exhausted as they
were, the trio obliged━

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with what was to be

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the page one spread in
newspapers all over the world.

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The United States was
in the space business

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along with the Russians,