/
Launch Success
Liftoff Time (GMT)
15:00:57
Saturday July 26, 1958
Watch Replay
Official Livestream
Explorer 4 was instrumented by Dr. James van Allen's group. The Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency had initially planned two satellites for the purposes of studying the Van Allen radiation belts and the effects of nuclear explosions upon these belts (and the Earth's magnetosphere in general), however, Explorer 4 was the only such satellite launched as the other, Explorer 5, suffered launch failure.
Medium Earth Orbit
1 Payload
26 kilograms
4th
Mission
4th
Mission of 1958
12th
Orbital launch attempt