
The first USA satellite launch was on January 31, 1958, when the Explorer 1 satellite was launched into orbit by a Jupiter-C rocket. This launch marked the United States’ entry into the Space Race with the Soviet Union, which had launched the first satellite, Sputnik 1, in 1957. The Explorer 1 satellite was designed to study cosmic rays and was instrumental in the discovery of the Van Allen radiation belts around the Earth.