They are the original and only record of Explorer IвЂ™s calls home.Д¬ountdown to Explorer I Sputnik beats American into Space The data tapes arenвЂ™t merely a record of that first discovery in space history. With immense courage and interpretive ingenuity, Van Allen and his team found вЂ“ not in the data but in the gaps - the totally unexpected phenomenon of the radiation belts. And then remember that the gaps played the music of discovery to just the right listeners. But Ludwig riddled the log with entry upon frustrating entry that read вЂњno dataвЂќ where gaps in the recordings bristle with static. The charged particle counts from space rose and fell with the rising and falling pitches in a staccato concert of tones on the tapes. Graduate student George Ludwig, a key participant in building the cosmic ray detector, logged 120 pages of data from the Explorer I tapes. The deluge of tapes arrived in metal canisters and cardboard sleeves, labelled with the collection time and location. Army steered Explorer I into space with a Jupiter C rocket but the data tapes were shipped to Iowa City and Van AllenвЂ™s basement laboratory. Data poured in, recorded on 694 Scotch reel-to-reel magnetic audio tapes. The Explorer 1 team, from left to right: William Pickering, James Van Allen, and Wernher von Braun, holding the replica.Д®xplorer I transmitted data about charged particles including cosmic rays to a global picket fence of radio receivers that tuned in on the satellite signal as it flew over Tokyo, Lima, Antigua, Havana, Nigeria, Singapore, the Jet Propulsion LaboratoryвЂ™s Codolock station, Patrick Air Force Base in Florida and the San Gabriel Radio Club in California. But the achievement was obvious by the time he reflected on the space age in March, 1970. Van Allen candidly called this extraordinary mission a вЂњshakedownвЂќ operation that succeeded on вЂњfoolвЂ™s luck.вЂќ Clearly even he didnвЂ™t expect the instrumentation to reveal the first discovery of the space age вЂ“ the existence of EarthвЂ™s radiation belts that set the course for remapping the solar system. It took flight with a cosmic ray detector invented by physicist James Van Allen and his graduate students in the basement of the University of IowaвЂ™s 1910 physics building. The Explorer I satellite emerged from a sidelined mission that, sanctioned earlier, could have reached orbit a year before the Sputniks launched.

A mission hastily salvaged to redeem American honour, launched in the shadow of two Sputniks already in orbit.

Vlf receiver to detect spy cams