Educate For Life With Kevin Conover

Space. The final frontier. Besides being the backdrop for a great Sci-Fi TV show, it is the subject of today’s show. Kevin Conover’s guest is Dr. Henry Richter, who helped put the first American satellite into space. Henry was picked to oversee the development of America’s first earth satellite, Explorer I. Henry says he lobbied to get Dr. James Van Allen’s package (a Geiger counter) on the satellite. This led to the discovery of the Van Allen Radiation Belts, which influence things from radio communications to the strength of the northern and southern auroras. The results from the Van Allen instrument were at first puzzling, largely because the instrument was saturated with the unexpectedly high levels of radiation surrounding the earth. Also, it was not until Explorer III that they had a tape recording of an entire orbit. Dr. Henry Richter became a Christian later in life. He says, “I was a busy churchman, but I sure didn’t like the name ‘Christian’. As the chairman of the board of a big, name-brand church,