Explorer 1 - Blog Posts
I'd like to see Explorer in his army uniform, even though he's supposed to be a 'civilian' satellite. I mean, they didn't almost name him 'Top Kick' for nothing! On an unrelated note, I do not support the War in Viet Nam!
Hey presto! Launch provider cosplay!
The Explorer program was a pitch from the US Army, it competed directly with the Navy's Vanguard for the title of America's first satellite, and amongst its plethora of banging potential names also included "Highball", "Deal" and "Missile 29" (which I love). But having been mainly built by JPL citizens, I didn't give my personification of their first satellite much military flair—nor much of a closet for that matter—so this was a fun prompt to shake things up!
At first, the sheer amount of uniforms tore me on what would be best fit and that's JUST counting the 50s iterations, but then I thought it'd be a great moment to introduce his near-identical siblings who could just model in his place. Two birds, one stone! Meet 3 and 4. :-)
Sputnik 1 is 6x as heavy as Explorer. So, it is possible that he could carry him...
Oh, totally. But Sputnik's all about surprises, so why stop there?
(They live in low earth orbit with zero-G so it technically works both ways.)
The real thing may have only been the size of a beach ball, but making Sputnik the same height as Yuri Gagarin was too good of an idea to pass up.
Comparative Image by Mike Gruntman, 2004
Explorer 1 (and the old man (satellite) club)
Three satellites and one very good girl!
January 2021 → October 2021