1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,270
0...and liftoff! The final liftoff of Atlantis

2
00:00:04,290 --> 00:00:07,440


3
00:00:07,460 --> 00:00:10,520
[ cheers ]

4
00:00:10,540 --> 00:00:12,820


5
00:00:12,840 --> 00:00:16,170
The NASA you know today? 

6
00:00:16,190 --> 00:00:21,300
It was actually founded after the launch of the first scientific mission in space.

7
00:00:21,320 --> 00:00:26,320
After the Soviet Union successfully launched the first satellite ever to orbit the Earth, 

8
00:00:26,340 --> 00:00:31,430
the United States was under enormous pressure to pick up the pace of its own satellite program. 

9
00:00:31,450 --> 00:00:33,050


10
00:00:33,070 --> 00:00:37,850
Built by a team of more than 100 engineers, electronics experts and machinists 

11
00:00:37,870 --> 00:00:41,820
working around the clock, Explorer 1 became the first American satellite

12
00:00:41,840 --> 00:00:44,520
to orbit the Earth just four months later.

13
00:00:44,540 --> 00:00:51,770


14
00:00:51,790 --> 00:00:56,570
In reality, Explorer 1 was actually the U.S.’s second attempt to launch a satellite 

15
00:00:56,590 --> 00:00:59,700
into space after Sputnik first took flight. 

16
00:00:59,720 --> 00:01:02,510
Working in tandem, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and 

17
00:01:02,530 --> 00:01:06,350
the Army Ballistic Missile Agency had a rocket nearly ready to launch.

18
00:01:06,370 --> 00:01:11,150
But the Navy’s Vanguard Project was given the first opportunity to send their rocket into space. 

19
00:01:11,170 --> 00:01:11,520


20
00:01:11,540 --> 00:01:15,920
Vanguard made it about two feet off the ground before exploding on the launch pad.

21
00:01:15,940 --> 00:01:18,420


22
00:01:18,440 --> 00:01:23,830
The Eisenhower Administration, eager to ease the anxieties of a nation deep into the Cold War, 

23
00:01:23,850 --> 00:01:28,840
gave JPL and the Army just ninety days to finish and launch Explorer 1.

24
00:01:28,860 --> 00:01:34,880


25
00:01:34,900 --> 00:01:40,070
Think for a minute, what a different world it would be if Explorer 1 never happened. 

26
00:01:40,090 --> 00:01:45,090
Say Vanguard successfully launched in December, the Explorer 1 may have been turned off.  

27
00:01:45,110 --> 00:01:48,020
There may have been less pressure to create a separate space agency 

28
00:01:48,040 --> 00:01:49,910
so we might not have NASA.

29
00:01:49,930 --> 00:01:53,650
There’s a lot of chance involved in all this. 

30
00:01:53,670 --> 00:01:59,060
Minutes click past relentlessly. The beams of powerful search lights light up the missile

31
00:01:59,080 --> 00:02:03,240
truly the star of one of the star of one of the greatest suspense dramas of our time. 

32
00:02:03,260 --> 00:02:18,710


33
00:02:18,730 --> 00:02:25,290
After Explorer 1 launched on January 31st, 1958, the Space Race officially began.

34
00:02:25,310 --> 00:02:27,150


35
00:02:27,170 --> 00:02:29,400
Explorer 1 played a huge symbolic role 

36
00:02:29,420 --> 00:02:32,230
in galvanizing America’s legacy in space. 

37
00:02:32,250 --> 00:02:36,130
But its true scientific mission was a milestone unto itself. 

38
00:02:36,150 --> 00:02:40,540
The instruments on board made the first major scientific find of the Space Age: 

39
00:02:40,560 --> 00:02:46,810
a belt of radiation around the planet linked to the very survival of life on Earth. 

40
00:02:46,830 --> 00:02:49,340
With Explorer 1, science moved into space, 

41
00:02:49,360 --> 00:02:54,650
and we can finally address questions scientifically we’ve asked for millennia. 

42
00:02:54,670 --> 00:03:00,560
The launch of Explorer 1 sixty years ago opened the flood gates for future scientific missions, 

43
00:03:00,580 --> 00:03:04,290
positioning the US to be a leader in space exploration.

44
00:03:04,310 --> 00:03:07,540


45
00:03:07,560 --> 00:03:11,800
There are 18 missions observing Earth right now, while another 36 are 

46
00:03:11,820 --> 00:03:14,830
currently exploring our solar system and beyond. 

47
00:03:14,850 --> 00:03:16,510


48
00:03:16,530 --> 00:03:19,820
To date, the United States has successfully sent a crewed mission to the moon, 

49
00:03:19,840 --> 00:03:24,040
dispatched a spacecraft to each planetary body in our solar system, 

50
00:03:24,060 --> 00:03:27,120
and reached interstellar space. 

51
00:03:27,140 --> 00:03:29,920
Just this year alone, there are 8 missions launching 

52
00:03:29,940 --> 00:03:35,160
all made possible by the collaborative efforts of NASA, its partner agencies like NOAA, 

53
00:03:35,180 --> 00:03:37,480
and other space agencies around the world.  

54
00:03:37,500 --> 00:03:43,970
Even though this started as a nation activity, we’ve brought the world along, 

55
00:03:43,990 --> 00:03:48,440
and it’s an international activity in which humanity together transcends 

56
00:03:48,460 --> 00:03:54,820
the boundaries and really opens up views of the world in a way we could have never imagined.

57
00:03:54,840 --> 00:03:55,650


58
00:03:55,670 --> 00:04:01,080
Less than a life time ago, humankind barely left the limits of our own atmosphere. 

59
00:04:01,100 --> 00:04:04,320
Who then could have imagined that only sixty years later

60
00:04:04,340 --> 00:04:08,630
we would be touching the atmosphere of the sun, arriving at the most distant object 

61
00:04:08,650 --> 00:04:11,640
humans have ever explored, and launching the world’s most 

62
00:04:11,660 --> 00:04:16,860
powerful telescope to get a glimpse of the first galaxies born after the Big Bang. 

63
00:04:16,880 --> 00:04:20,520
Humanity’s exploration of the universe will continue to expand, 

64
00:04:20,540 --> 00:04:24,340
from our home planet to the far reaches of interstellar space.

65
00:04:24,360 --> 00:04:30,050
But wherever NASA goes, one thing is certain: it won’t be boring.

66
00:04:30,070 --> 00:04:37,224