On January 31, 1958, the tide changed, when the United States successfully launched Explorer I. This satellite carried a small scientific payload that eventually discovered the magnetic radiation belts around the Earth, named after principal investigator James Van Allen. The Explorer program is expected to continued as a successful ongoing series of lightweight, scientifically useful spacecraft.

On October 4, 1957, when the former Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The world's first artificial satellite Dr. William H. Pickering, Dr. James A. Van Allen and Dr. Wernher von Braun (left to right) hoist a model of Explorer I and the final stage after the launching. Explorer I, the first U.S. earth satellite was launched by a Jupiter-C with U.S. earth - IGY scientific experiments of Dr. James A. Van Allen.