NASA launched the Explorer 11 satellite atop a Juno II rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The Explorer 11 satellite was the first to carry a gamma-ray telescope into space. Explorer 11’s mission was to test the use of this satellite in detecting high-energy gamma rays and mapping their directions. Explorer 11 functioned for just seven months, returning data related to 22 bursts of gamma rays and 22,000 solar radiation events.