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Cold War: Space Race: The Explorer 1, the first successful American satellite, detects the Van Allen radiation belt.
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Space Race
US–USSR spaceflight capability rivalry
The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between the Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the two nations following World War II and…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Explorer 1
First satellite launched by the United States (1958)
Explorer 1 was the first satellite launched by the United States in 1958 and was part of the U.S. participation in the International Geophysical Year (IGY). The mission followed the first two satellites, both launched by the Soviet Union during the previous year, Sputnik 1 and…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Van Allen radiation belt
Zone of energetic charged particles around the planet Earth
The Van Allen radiation belt is a zone of energetic charged particles, most of which originate from the solar wind, that are captured by and held around a planet by that planet's magnetosphere. Earth has two such belts, and sometimes others may be temporarily created. The belts…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)