Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On September 7, 1914, the American physicist Dr. James Van Allen, who is credited with helping launch the US space program, was born in Mount Pleasant. The world-renowned physicist discovered Earth’s radiation belts in 1958 after assessing readings from the Explorer I satellite.
After growing up in Mount Pleasant, James Van Allen attended Iowa Wesleyan College in the town. After graduating in 1935, he went to Iowa City to pursue a Master of Science (1936) and a PhD (1939). When Uncle Sam came calling with the onset of World War II, Van Allen helped develop the radio proximity fuse used in naval artillery shells.
After the war, Van Allen studied high-altitude research at John Hopkins University. During the late 1940s, leading testing of recently captured German V-2 rockets occupied much of his attention. He also worked on developing the high-altitude research rocket Aerobee.
In 1951, Van Allen returned to Iowa City to research and teach at the University of Iowa. While at Iowa, Van Allen rose to global fame while spearheading efforts for international research collaboration. A critical designer of the instrumentation for many early NASA projects, Van Allen’s team built the instrumentation for the Explorer satellites. When readings returned from Explorer I in 1968, Van Allen discovered two zones of radiation encircling the earth today known as the “Van Allen Belts.” #IowaHistoryDaily #IowaOTD #IowaHistoryCalendar
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