Jud McCranie wrote:
1. Watching the Explorer 1 liftoff (on the Liftoff DVD), there is a
bright light shining near the top of the first stage, near where the
umbilical goes in. What is this light? It is visible for quite a
while after liftoff.

2. Why was Explorer 1 launched at night?
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Replace you know what by j to email


Here is a 28-min, 7.7-mb video, about Explorer 1 called, "The Big
Picture".
It's a video by the U.S. Army and available on the U.S. Army Redstone
Arsenal
website:

http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/asf/big_pic.asf
http://www.redstone.army.mil/history...r/welcome.html

Here's a link to the U.S. Army, 6.9-mb PDF monograph titled,
"Army Ordnance Satellite Program", it's about the early Explorer
satellites:

http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/pdf/sat/sat.pdf