It's hard to believe, but last Thursday, January 31, marked the 50th anniversary of the U.S. entry into space with the successful launch of the Explorer I satellite. Embarrassed by the Russians when they reached orbit first with Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, (I'm feeling old because I was born just a few months before Sputnik was launched) the U.S. was desperate for something to cheer about, especially after the spectacular failure of our Vanguard rocket in December, 1957.  (You've probably seen the film of the Vanguard collapsing onto the launchpad in a great fireball after only rising a few feet.  It's shown way too often, usually when a TV special is trying to reference notable engineering disasters throughout history). With the launch of Explorer I, you could say the space race was officially on. The next decade of of the space race probably did more to advance math, science and engineering in this country than at any other time in our history. Sadly, with the end of the Apollo program in the early 70s, our countries interest in science and engineering quickly waned. So here we are 50 years later lamenting the fact that the U.S. is behind many countries, including China and India, in the number of graduating engineers. Let's hope sometime in the next 50 years we have a space program that rekindles the engineering spirit and drive started by the launch of Explorer I. If you want to learn more about our entry into space, the U.S. Army Redstone Arsenal has a good web site covering the development and launch of Explorer I.