August 7, 1959
US AND SPACE: The Explorer VI «paddle-wheel» satellite, weighing 142 pounds, was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, today and is set to orbit the Earth for more than a year. The satellite was launched at 14.23 Greenwich Mean Time today. The rocket carrying the launched satellite consists of three sections. Within four minutes of blastoff, it had reached speeds of 36,000 kilometers an hour, 6,000 kilometers faster than the speed required to put the satellite into orbit. The third section of the rocket went into orbit around the Earth along with the satellite. Four minutes after blastoff, a radio station at Southampton, northeast of New York, announced it had picked up clear signals from the satellite. US Air Force officials announced that all three sections of the satellite had been successfully launched. Explorer VI is spherical in shape and the rocket is 90 feet long. Its maximum height in space will be 36,800 kilometers; the satellite will be circle the Earth approximately every 12 hours. American scientists are depending on the success of this experiment to enable them to make deeper space exploration. Next October, it is hoped that a 300 to 400 pound rocket will be launched to orbit Mars or Venus.
