Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of American Space Exploration

Reader Micheal, who happens to work at the Jet
Propulsion Lab, sends along the following:

I wanted to send a heads up of an important anniversary coming up (and big deal here on the lab)
- just in case it wasn't on your radar. January
31 will be the 50th anniversary of Explorer I, the first American spacecraft.

It looks like there's going to be a special conference at the lab in Pasadena, CA as well. A quick look at the website mentions:

Science and social studies educators, museum staff and high school students are invited to attend the event on Saturday and Sunday, January 26 and
27, 2008, in Pasadena, California.

If there are any GeekDads in SoCal with high school-age kids who are interested in space exploration, this could be a real treat. Take a look at
the website, and see about registering early -
there don't appear to be any plans to sell tickets at the door. And if you go, take pictures and send them to us so we can post them on GeekDad!