The Space Explorers

From: Wikipedia.org
The Space Explorers was an animated feature film which was later converted to a cartoon serial. First shown on television during the Space Race era of the late 1950s by publisher Bill Cayton and animator Fred Ladd. The was also a sequel series released in 1959 entitled the "New Adventures of the Space Explorers."

The first animated film series was first shown in 1958 on nationwide television shows such as Claude Kirchner's on WWOR-TV, Captain Kangaroo, Captain Video (DuMont), Captain Satellite, Sheriff John, The Merry Mailman, Officer Joe Bolton, Romper Room and many others. The cartoon, which featured Jimmy, Smitty, and Professor Leon Nordheim on board the Polaris spaceship, taught space-related concepts.