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Environment

Satellites And History

January 12, 2009 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 87, Issue 2

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Information from the American Chemical Society's 2007 Form 990 is now available to ACS members on www.acs.org. To access the information, please have your ACS membership number handy and follow these instructions: Go to www.acs.org. In the upper right-hand corner, log in. If you are already a registered user, enter your user name and password. If you're a new user, follow the link and register (a process that requires your ACS membership number and takes less than a minute). Once you have logged in, you will see a link titled "Member Information." Click on this link, go to the heading "Your Organization" at the bottom of the screen, and click on the link titled "Access the Compensation of ACS Officers and Key Employees." You will immediately go to the introductory text; the Form 990 is available by clicking on the link at the bottom of the page titled "2007 Compensation Schedules." If you have any problems, contact webmaster@acs.org.

IN SUSAN MORRISSEY'S article "NASA Celebrates 50 Years," she says, "When the National Aeronautics & Space Administration was established in 1958, people likely had little idea that during the next five decades, the new agency would successfully send satellites into orbit, men to the moon, and probes deep into space" (C&EN, Nov. 17, 2008, page 54).

At that time, there may have been a little doubt about placing men on the moon, but not satellites in Earth orbit and probes into space. As Morrissey mentioned, the Russian Sputnik I was launched Oct. 4, 1957, and later the U.S. had placed satellites in orbit and even attempted a lunar probe before NASA opened for business on Oct. 1, 1958.

I was fortunate to be the launch weather officer for the first U.S. satellite, Explorer I. When I saw it roar into the night sky on Jan. 31, 1958, from Cape Pad 26A on the Juno I launch vehicle, I knew that America had entered the Space Age. Explorer I proved to be more than just a satellite novelty as it confirmed the presence of the Van Allen radiation belt and also confirmed that Earth was slightly oblate rather than a perfect sphere.

John L. Meisenheimer Sr.
Orlando, Fla.

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