On Jan. 31 1958 the United States entered into the space race by the launch of the Explorer I. It had a Geiger counter that detected the radiation belt around the earth called the Van Allen Belt (named after James Van Allen who designed the experiment.) Sputnik was 184 pounds was larger then Explorer, which weighted 31 pounds. Explorer had more components than Sputnik, two radio transmitters and the cosmic ray instrument. On the other hand, Sputnik had two transmitters to broadcast on frequencies at 20 and 40 MHz. The whole world heard it on shortwave radio.
Here's an article about the a reject nose cone thought to be that from Explorer I. (HT OC Register)
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