In December, Professor Jeff Volosin, Program Director of Astronautical and Space Engineering at Capitol Tech, hosted the first of his Explorer Program History Lecture Series for students and community members who are interested in learning more about the history of space exploration. From 1958 to today, Explorer spacecraft have been on the forefront of scientific discovery and advances in space technologies. Professor Volosin’s extensive archival research and interviews with Explorer mission engineers and scientists has uncovered details of the rich history of this extremely successful satellite program.
His recent seminar covered the period of 1958-1961, a time of incredible “firsts” in spaceflight as well as a time of transition as scientific research satellite programs in the U.S. were initiated by the military and then slowly transitioned to the newly established civilian National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
The first successful American satellite, Explorer-1, launched in 1958 as a U.S. Army program. During this same period, the Navy and Air Force were also actively involved in developing scientific satellites. The Eisenhower Administration decided it would be best to bring all of these efforts together and transfer them to a new, civilian space agency. Beginning in October 1958, the military branches were directed to begin the transfer of their scientific satellite projects to NASA. In addition to absorbing a number of military facilities and teams who were working on these projects, NASA established a new field center, Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), to provide mission management for many of these former military projects as well as for future science missions. GSFC decided to call their program of small/medium size science satellites “Explorer,” maintaining a link back to Explorer-1. GSFC has managed the Explorer Program since 1958 and continues to this day. Over 100 Explorer satellites have been developed over the past 66 years, selected and funded by the Earth Sciences, Astrophysics and Heliophysics Science Divisions of NASA. These missions provide a path for scientific investigations, science teams, and their technologies to move from suborbital (high altitude balloons and sounding rockets) to orbital research. Explorers also provide a training ground for teams and technologies to determine if they would benefit from a greater investment as part of a larger NASA mission (something more like the Hubble or Webb Space Telescopes). The Earth Sciences Division, which stopped flying Explorer missions in the 1980s, has recently restarted their Explorer Program due to the great value these missions can provide.
Professor Volosin’s lecture series derives from more than five years of extensive archival research and interviews with engineers, scientists and managers of past and current Explorer missions. This research has provided the material for a book he is writing on the history of the Explorer Program. Professor Volosin has an extensive 38-year career in aerospace, having worked directly on Explorer missions as well as with many of the NASA organizations responsible for supporting these missions. In 2024, he received the NASA Distinguished Service Medal for his lifetime achievements and contributions to the space field. In the 1990s, Professor Volosin was the operations lead for the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) mission to study the Sun. From 2013 to 2018, he was the project manager for the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and then, proceeded to NASA Headquarters to become the Deputy Director of Astrophysics. He returned to NASA GSFC at the end of his career to be the Director of Earth Sciences Flight Projects. In each role, he was involved in projects that related to NASA’s Explorer program, and he began wanting to learn more about the program’s history. Upon finding that little information on this history was available, he decided to dig in and see what he could find. Over the last 5 years, Professor Volosin has spent his free time going through archives and interviewing key individuals who worked on Explorer missions. As the chapters of the book start to coalesce, he decided to use this lecture series as one way of spreading the word on the incredible history of the Explorer Program!
Professor Volosin’s first lecture recording will be made available on our Youtube channel and he will be announcing the date for the second lecture in his Explorer Series soon. The next lecture will cover the remainder of the 1960s–a period where approximately 40 successful Explorer spacecraft were flown. These missions ventured into new areas of science and supported NASA’s ambition to land humans on the Moon within the decade. Additionally, Professor Volosin has several other ASE events lined up for our students and community to get more involved in space exploration and historical discussions to help bring awareness to our university programs and opportunities.
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