1958 was a truly momentous year in the history of space exploration. Within the confines of those 12 months, America’s first satellite, Explorer 1, was launched into orbit, while Russia retaliated by lobbing up a massive space laboratory known as Sputnik 3. On 2 April that year President Eisenhower had placed a proposal before Congress, calling for the creation of a civilian space agency to be known as NASA — the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. A compromise bill was approved and passed by voice votes of both houses of Congress on 16 July and signed by the President just 13 days later.