Media Inquiries Public Inquiries 202-633-1000

WHAT: Fiftieth Anniversary of Explorer I - Ask an Expert Gallery Talk: “America Enters the Space Race: Explorer I”

WHEN: Wednesday, Jan. 30; noon

WHERE: Milestones of Flight Gallery, National Air and Space Museum, Seventh Street and Independence Avenue S.W.

WHO: Michael Neufeld, Space History Division chair, National Air and Space Museum.

Fifty years ago, on Jan. 31, 1958, the Explorer I satellite was successfully launched, only a few months after the Russians surprised the world with Sputnik. Michael Neufeld, the chair of the Space History Division at the National Air and Space Museum, will give a 15-minute gallery talk about the significance of Explorer I in the Space Race.

Interested media must R.S.V.P. to LaraI@si.edu or MullenB@si.edu.

 Space Race contains a wealth of artifacts from both the U.S. and Soviet space programs. They range from the huge Skylab Orbital Workshop (left background), which you can enter, to a tiny arming key from Sputnik 1. Among the larger highlights are a German V-2 missile and V-1 "buzz bomb" (left), a cluster of rockets and missiles (foreground), and a Tomahawk cruise missile (right).