<a href="http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/01/31/624367.aspx" target="_blank" title="080130-coslog-explorer-466-12p.jpg"><img src="http://strangeattractor.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/080130-coslog-explorer-466-12p.jpg" alt="080130-coslog-explorer-466-12p.jpg" align="left" border="0" height="271" vspace="8" width="361" /></a><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: Verdana" align="left"></span>

<em>Jan. 31, 1958. Explorer 1 was circling Earth for the first time, proving that America could match the Soviets on the Cold War's orbital frontier. </em>

<em>"We have firmly established our foothold in space," Wernher von Braun declared. "We will never give it up again."...</em>

Full article at<a href="http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/01/31/624367.aspx" target="_blank"> MSNBC</a>

<span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: Verdana" align="left">[T</span><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: Verdana" align="left">he Jet Propulsion Laboratory's William Pickering, University of Iowa physicist James Van Allen and rocket scientist Wernher von Braun hold up a model of Explorer 1 at a news conference after hearing the satellite had reached orbit on Jan. 31, 1958.]</span>