At Cape Canaveral, Florida, the Army's Jupiter-C rocket is ready for America's second attempt
to launch a space satellite.
No relation to the IRBM Jupiter, this is a rebuilt Redstone, a 200-mile missile carrying
instead of a warhead three stages of solid fuel booster rockets and the Explorer, a six-foot
bullet only inches across crammed with electronic gear, 30 pounds of payload.
This close-up of the United States edition of Sputnik was made at a press conference
with leaders of the scientific teams, Dr. Werner von Braun, Dr. James Van Allen and Dr.
William Pickering, a three-way collaboration between private industry, academic science
and the military.
The university stands poised on its launching pad.
The hours-long countdown approaches zero.
A moment of enormous tension for every missile launching is still an experiment.
Any one of tens of thousands of things can go wrong with catastrophic results, but all
that can be done to assure perfection has been done.
The moment is at hand.
The countdown reaches zero.
Some three minutes later, Explorer is in orbit, broadcasting to the world its coded scientific
data.
Cosmic ray intensity, meteor impact, solar radiation, these are the dry facts that will
help carry man ever farther into the age of space.
Two presidents, Kamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt and Shukri al-Khawatli of Syria meet to make
history in Cairo with the federation of their two states into one, the United Arab Republic.
The news electrified the entire Middle East, in Cairo, cheering throngs followed the two
leaders through the streets exultantly.
The Al-Haza Mosque is the scene of prayers for the new union, which has already invited
all Arab states to join.
One, Yemen, is expected to bid for inclusion.
The new state number is 30 million, largest in the Mideast.
Syria sent vast forces in motion with this act.
The effect on the precariously balanced Middle East, no one today can prophesy.
The rest of the world, America, Russia, Israel, all remain cautiously quiet awaiting the events
that will follow on Kamal Nasser's moment of triumph.