At 22:47:56 EST on Friday, 31 January 1958 (03:47 UTC on 1 February), a Juno I rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 26A and successfully placed the Explorer 1 satellite into orbit around the Earth. The launch made the United States the second country to place a satellite into orbit – four months after the Soviet Union orbited Sputnik 1. Sixty years laters, the state of the US launch industry is strong thanks in large part to the proliferation of new commercial entrants into a long-standing market.
