English subtitles for clip: File:1958-02-03 First US Satellite Launched.ogv

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At Cape Canaveral, Florida, the Army's Jupiter-C rocket

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is readied for America's second attempt to launch a space satellite.

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No relation to the IRBM Jupiter, this is a rebuilt Redstone,

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a 200-mile missile carrying instead of a warhead

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three stages of solid fuel booster rockets and the Explorer,

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a six-foot bullet only inches across crammed with electronic gear—

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thirty pounds of payload.

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This closeup of the United States edition of Sputnik

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was made at a press conference with leaders of the scientific teams:

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Dr Wernher von Braun, Dr James Van Allen, and Dr William Pickering,

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a three-way collaboration between private industry, academic science, and the military.

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Jupiter-C stands poised on its launching pad.

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The hours-long countdown approaches zero.

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A moment of enormous tension, for every missile launching is still an experiment.

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Any one of tens of thousands of things can go wrong, with catastrophic results.

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But all that can be done with sure perfection has been done,

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the moment is at hand, the countdown reaches… Zero!

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Some three minutes later, Explorer is in orbit, broadcasting to

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the world its coded scientific data:

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Cosmic ray intensity, meteor impacts, solar radiation,

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these are the dry facts that will help carry man

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ever farther into the age of space.

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Two presidents, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt and Shukri al-Quwatli of Syria,

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meet to make history in Cairo with the federation of their two states

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into one, the United Arab Republic.

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The news electrified the entire Middle East.

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In Cairo, cheering throngs followed the two leaders through the streets exultantly.

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The Al-Azhar Mosque is the scene of prayers for the new union,

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which has already invited all Arab states to join.

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One, Yemen, is expected to bid for inclusion.

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The new state numbers 30 million, largest in the Mid-East.

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Nasser has set vast forces in motion with this act.

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The effect on the precariously balanced Middle East

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no one today can prophesy.

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The rest of the world—America, Russia, Israel—

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all remain cautiously quiet, awaiting the events that

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will follow on Gamal Nasser's moment of triumph.