The Vanguard rocket was intended to be the first

launch vehicle A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload (spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pad, launch pads, supported by a missile launch contro ...

the United States would use to place a

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

into orbit. Instead, the

Sputnik crisis The Sputnik crisis was a period of public fear and anxiety in Western nations about the perceived technological gap between the United States and Soviet Union caused by the Soviets' launch of ''Sputnik 1'', the world's first artificial satelli ...

caused by the surprise launch of

Sputnik 1 Sputnik 1 (; see § Etymology) was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program. It sent a radio signal back to Earth for t ...

led the U.S., after the failure of

Vanguard TV-3 Vanguard TV-3 (also called Vanguard Test Vehicle-Three), was the first attempt of the United States to launch a satellite into orbit around the Earth, after the successful Soviet launches of Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2. Vanguard TV-3 was a small s ...

, to quickly orbit the

Explorer 1 Explorer 1 was the first satellite launched by the United States in 1958 and was part of the U.S. participation in the International Geophysical Year (IGY). The mission followed the first two satellites the previous year; the Soviet Union's ...

satellite using a

Juno I The Juno I was a four-stage American space launch vehicle, used to launch lightweight payloads into low Earth orbit. The launch vehicle was used between January 1958 to December 1959. The launch vehicle was a member of the Redstone launch veh ...

rocket, making

Vanguard 1 Vanguard 1 (Harvard designation: 1958-Beta 2, COSPAR ID: 1958-005B ) is an American satellite that was the fourth artificial Earth-orbiting satellite to be successfully launched, following Sputnik 1, Sputnik 2, and Explorer 1. It was launched ...

the second successful U.S. orbital launch. Vanguard rockets were used by

Project Vanguard Project Vanguard was a program managed by the United States Navy Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), which intended to launch the first artificial satellite into low Earth orbit using a Vanguard rocket. as the launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral ...

from 1957 to 1959. Of the eleven Vanguard rockets which the project attempted to launch, three successfully placed satellites into orbit. Vanguard rockets were an important part of the

Space Race The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the tw ...

between the United States and the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

Overview

In 1955, the United States announced plans to put a scientific satellite in orbit for the

International Geophysical Year The International Geophysical Year (IGY; french: Année géophysique internationale) was an international scientific project that lasted from 1 July 1957 to 31 December 1958. It marked the end of a long period during the Cold War when scientific ...

(IGY) in 1957–1958. The goal was to track the satellite as it performed experiments. At that time, there were three candidates for the launch vehicle: The Air Force's

SM-65 Atlas The SM-65 Atlas was the first operational intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) developed by the United States and the first member of the Atlas rocket family. It was built for the U.S. Air Force by the Convair Division of General Dyna ...

, a derivative of the

Army Ballistic Missile Agency The Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) was formed to develop the United States Army, U.S. Army's first large ballistic missile. The agency was established at Redstone Arsenal on 1 February 1956, and commanded by Major General John Bruce Meda ...

's SSM-A-14 Redstone, and a Navy proposal for a three-stage rocket based on the RTV-N-12a Viking sounding rocket. The

RAND Corporation The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is financed ...

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an a ...

and

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

had long pursued the idea of a

reconnaissance satellite A reconnaissance satellite or intelligence satellite (commonly, although unofficially, referred to as a spy satellite) is an Earth observation satellite or communications satellite deployed for military or intelligence applications. The ...

. Such a program was under way, Weapon System 117L, which was top secret compartmented. One problem with reconnaissance was the question of legality: Was there "freedom of space" or did a nation's airspace end when space is entered? The

National Security Council A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a na ...

backed the IGY satellite because it would make good cover for WS117L and set a precedent of freedom of space peaceful civilian satellite. At the same time the NSC stressed that the IGY satellite must not interfere with military programs. The Army's Redstone-based proposal would likely be the first one ready for a satellite launch. Its connection with German-born scientist

Wernher von Braun Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun ( , ; 23 March 191216 June 1977) was a German and American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was a member of the Nazi Party and Allgemeine SS, as well as the leading figure in the develop ...

, however, was a public-relations risk.Correll, John T.
How the Air Force Got the ICBM
''Air Force'', July 2005. In any case, the

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographic ...

and Redstone ballistic missiles were top-priority military projects, which were not to be hindered by pursuing a secondary space launch mission. Milton Rosen's Vanguard was a project at the

Naval Research Laboratory The United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. It was founded in 1923 and conducts basic scientific research, applied research, technological ...

(NRL), which was regarded more as a scientific than a military organization. Rosen and Richard Porter (IGY satellite chief and head of the

American Rocket Society The American Rocket Society (ARS) began its existence on , under the name of the American Interplanetary Society. It was founded by science fiction writers G. Edward Pendray, David Lasser, Laurence Manning, Nathan Schachner, and others. Pendray ...

) both lobbied for the Vanguard and against using the Atlas or von Braun's rockets. They emphasized the non-military goals of the satellite program. Besides the public-relations aspect, a non-military satellite was considered important, because a discussion of whether overflights of foreign countries by satellites were legal or illegal was to be avoided. In August or September 1955, the DOD Committee on Special Capabilities chose the NRL proposal, named Vanguard, for the IGY project. The Martin company, which had also built the Viking, became prime contractor for the launch vehicle. The Vanguard rocket was designed as a three-stage vehicle. The first stage was a

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

X-405 liquid-fueled engine (designated XLR50-GE-2 by the Navy), derived from the engine of the RTV-N-12a Viking. The second stage was the

Aerojet General Aerojet was an American rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer based primarily in Rancho Cordova, California, with divisions in Redmond, Washington, Orange and Gainesville in Virginia, and Camden, Arkansas. Aerojet was owned by GenCorp. I ...

AJ10-37 ( XLR52-AJ-2) liquid-fueled engine, a variant of the engine in the RTV-N-10

Aerobee The Aerobee rocket was one of the United States' most produced and productive sounding rockets. Developed by the Aerojet Corporation, the Aerobee was designed to combine the altitude and launching capability of the V-2 with the cost effectiven ...

. Finally, the third stage was a solid-propellant rocket motor. All three-stage Vanguard flights except the last one used a motor built by the

Grand Central Rocket Company The Lockheed Propulsion Company was a division of the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation located at 1500 Crafton Avenue in the Mentone, California area northeast of Redlands, California, adjacent to the Santa Ana River, from 1961 to 1975. It developed, ...

. Vanguard had no fins, and the first and second stages were steered by gimbaled engines. The second stage housed the vehicle's telemetry system, the inertial guidance system and the autopilot. The third stage was spin-stabilized, with the spin imparted by a turntable on the second stage before separation. The Vanguard's second stage served for decades as the Able and Delta second stage for satellite launch vehicles. The

AJ10 The AJ10 is a hypergolic rocket engine manufactured by Aerojet Rocketdyne (previously Aerojet). It has been used to propel the upper stages of several launch vehicles, including the Delta II and Titan III. Variants were and are used as the servic ...

engine which made up those stages was adapted into the AJ10-137, which was used as the

Apollo Service Module The Apollo command and service module (CSM) was one of two principal components of the United States Apollo spacecraft, used for the Apollo program, which landed astronauts on the Moon between 1969 and 1972. The CSM functioned as a mother ship ...

engine. The AJ10-190, adapted from the

Apollo spacecraft The Apollo spacecraft was composed of three parts designed to accomplish the American Apollo program's goal of landing astronauts on the Moon by the end of the 1960s and returning them safely to Earth. The expendable (single-use) spacecraft ...

was used on the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program na ...

for orbital maneuvers. The AJ10-160 is to be repurposed for use on NASA's upcoming

Orion spacecraft Orion (officially Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle or Orion MPCV) is a Reusable spacecraft, partially reusable crewed spacecraft used in NASA's Artemis program. The spacecraft consists of a Crew Module (CM) space capsule designed by Lockheed ...

Launch summary

The first two flights of the Vanguard program, designated Vanguard TV-0 and Vanguard TV-1, were actually the last two remaining RTV-N-12a Viking rockets modified. Vanguard TV-0, launched on 8 December 1956, primarily tested new telemetry systems, while Vanguard TV-1 on 1 May 1957, was a two-stage vehicle testing separation and ignition of the solid-fueled upper stage of Vanguard.

Vanguard TV-2 Vanguard TV-2, also called Vanguard Test Vehicle-Two, was the third suborbital test flight of a Vanguard rocket as part of Project Vanguard. Successful TV-2 followed the successful launch of Vanguard TV-0 a one-stage rocket launched in Decemb ...

, launched on 23 October 1957, after several abortive attempts, was the first real Vanguard rocket. The second and third stages were inert, but the flight successfully tested first/second-stage separation and spin-up of the third stage. However, by that time, the Soviet Union had already placed the

satellite into orbit, and so project Vanguard was more or less forced to launch its own satellite as soon as possible. Therefore, a very small experimental satellite (derisively called the "grapefruit" by

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...

, and weighing only ) was added to

, which was to be the first test of an all-up Vanguard rocket. Although the

NRL The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

and Glenn L. Martin Company tried to emphasize that the Vanguard TV-3 mission was a pure test flight (and one with several "firsts"), everyone else saw it as the first satellite launch of the Western world, billed as "America's answer to Sputnik".

angrily said about the Sputnik launch: "We knew they were going to do it. Vanguard will never make it. We have the hardware on the shelf. We can put up a satellite in 60 days". On 6 December 1957, the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

launched

rocket, carrying a satellite, from

Cape Canaveral , image = cape canaveral.jpg , image_size = 300 , caption = View of Cape Canaveral from space in 1991 , map = Florida#USA , map_width = 300 , type =Cape , map_caption = Location in Florida , location ...

. It only reached an altitude of before it fell and exploded. The satellite was exploded from the top of the rocket, landed in bushes near the pad, and began transmitting signals, leading ''

New York Journal-American :''Includes coverage of New York Journal-American and its predecessors New York Journal, The Journal, New York American and New York Evening Journal'' The ''New York Journal-American'' was a daily newspaper published in New York City from 1937 t ...

'' columnist

Dorothy Kilgallen Dorothy Mae Kilgallen (July 3, 1913 – November 8, 1965) was an American columnist, journalist, and television game show panelist. After spending two semesters at the College of New Rochelle, she started her career shortly before her 18th birth ...

to remark "Why doesn't somebody go out there, find it, and shoot it?" The American press called it ''Kaputnik''. Investigation into the accident concluded that inadequate fuel tank pressure had allowed hot exhaust gases to back up into the injector head and destroy it, causing complete loss of engine thrust. After the failure of Vanguard TV-3, the backup vehicle,

Vanguard TV-3BU upright=1.1, The Vanguard rocket cutaway view Vanguard TV-3BU, also called Vanguard Test Vehicle-Three Backup, was the second flight of the American Vanguard rocket. An unsuccessful attempt to place an unnamed satellite, Vanguard 1B, into o ...

("BU" for backup), was prepared for another attempt. Pad crews hastened to repair the damage done to LC-18A by Vanguard TV-3's explosion, and in the third week of January 1958, the job was completed. Vanguard TV-3BU was erected on the pad, but continuous delays frustrated the launch attempt. Heavy rains shorted some electrical cables on the ground and necessitated their replacement. The second stage had also been sitting on the pad with a full load of

nitric acid Nitric acid is the inorganic compound with the formula . It is a highly corrosive mineral acid. The compound is colorless, but older samples tend to be yellow cast due to decomposition into oxides of nitrogen. Most commercially available nitri ...

for several weeks, which eventually corroded the fuel tank and valves. It had to be removed and replaced by a different stage. Finally, the launch got under way on the night of 5 February 1958. The Vanguard lifted smoothly into the sky and performed well until 57 seconds into launch, when the booster pitched over almost 40°. The skinny second stage broke in half from aerodynamic stress four seconds later, causing the Vanguard to tumble end-over-end before

range safety officer In the field of rocketry, range safety may be assured by a system which is intended to protect people and assets on both the rocket range and downrange in cases when a launch vehicle might endanger them. For a rocket deemed to be ''off course'' ...

sent the destruct command. Cause of the failure was attributed to a spurious guidance signal that caused the first stage to perform unintended pitch maneuvers. The guidance system was modified to have greater redundancy, and efforts were made to improve quality control. On 17 March 1958, Vanguard TV-4 finally succeeded in orbiting the

satellite. By that time, however, the Army's

Juno Juno commonly refers to: *Juno (mythology), the Roman goddess of marriage and queen of the gods *Juno (film), ''Juno'' (film), 2007 Juno may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional characters *Juno, in the film ''Jenny, Juno'' *Ju ...

(

Jupiter-C The Jupiter-C was an American research and development vehicle developed from the Jupiter-A. Jupiter-C was used for three unmanned sub-orbital spaceflights in 1956 and 1957 to test re-entry nosecones that were later to be deployed on the more a ...

) had already launched the United States' first satellite,

. The Vanguard TV-4 rocket had put the satellite Vanguard 1, to a relatively high orbit of (). Vanguard 1 and its third stage remain in orbit as the oldest man-made artifacts in space. The following four flights, TV-5 and SLV (Satellite Launch Vehicle)

Vanguard SLV-1 Vanguard SLV-1, also called Vanguard Satellite Launch Vehicle-1 was hoped to be the second successful flight of the American Vanguard rocket following the successful launch of the Vanguard 1 satellite on rocket Vanguard TV-4 in March 1958. B ...

Vanguard SLV-2 Vanguard SLV-2, also called Vanguard Satellite Launch Vehicle-2 hoped to be the second successful flight of the American Vanguard (rocket), Vanguard rocket following successful Vanguard 1 satellite on rocket Vanguard 1, Vanguard TV-4. Backgro ...

and Vanguard SLV-3 all failed, but on 17 February 1959, Vanguard SLV-4 launched

Vanguard 2 Vanguard 2 (or Vanguard 2E before launch) is an Earth-orbiting satellite launched 17 February 1959 at 15:55:02 GMT, aboard a Vanguard SLV-4 rocket as part of the United States Navy's Project Vanguard. The satellite was designed to measure clou ...

, weighing , into orbit. The SLVs were the "production" Vanguard rockets.

Vanguard SLV-5 Vanguard SLV-5, also called Vanguard Satellite Launch Vehicle-Five hoped to be the third successful flight of the American Vanguard (rocket), Vanguard rocket following the successful Vanguard 2 satellite on rocket Vanguard 2, Vanguard SLV-4. ...

and

Vanguard SLV-6 Vanguard SLV-6, also called Vanguard Satellite Launch Vehicle-Six, hoped to be the third successful flight of the American Vanguard rocket following the successful Vanguard 2 satellite on rocket Vanguard SLV-4. Vanguard Satellite Launch Vehicl ...

also failed, but the final flight on 18 September 1959, successfully orbited the

Vanguard 3 Vanguard 3 (Harvard designation: 1959 Eta 1) is a scientific satellite that was launched into Earth orbit by the Vanguard SLV-7 on 18 September 1959, the third successful Vanguard launch out of eleven attempts. Vanguard rocket: Vanguard Satell ...

satellite. That last mission was designated Vanguard TV-4BU, because it used a remaining test vehicle, which had been upgraded with a new third stage, the

Allegany Ballistics Laboratory Allegany Ballistics Laboratory (ABL) located in Rocket Center, West Virginia, is a diverse industrial complex employing some 1,000 people across . The facility is a member of the Federal Laboratory Consortium and is operated by Northrop Grumma ...

X-248A2 Altair. This more powerful motor enabled the launch of the heavier payload. The combination of the AJ10 liquid engine and X-248 solid motor was also used, under the name Able, as an upper stage combination for Thor and Atlas space launch vehicles.

Launches

Vanguard launched 3 satellites out of 11 launch attempts: *

Vanguard TV3 Vanguard TV-3 (also called Vanguard Test Vehicle-Three), was the first attempt of the United States to launch a satellite into orbit around the Earth, after the successful Soviet launches of Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2. Vanguard TV-3 was a sm ...

- December 6, 1957 - Failed to orbit satellite * Vanguard TV3 Backup - February 5, 1958 - Failed to orbit satellite *

(Vanguard TV4) - March 17, 1958 - Orbited satellite *

Vanguard TV5 Vanguard TV-5, also called Vanguard Test Vehicle-Five, was a failed flight of the American Vanguard rocket following the successful launch of Vanguard 1 on Vanguard TV-4. Vanguard TV-5 launched on 29 April 1958 at 02:53:00 GMT, from Launch Co ...

- April 28, 1958 - Failed to orbit satellite *

- May 27, 1958 - Failed to orbit 10.0 kg satellite *

- June 26, 1958 - Failed to orbit 10.0 kg satellite * Vanguard SLV-3 - September 26, 1958 - Failed to orbit 10.0 kg satellite *

(Vanguard SLV-4) - February 17, 1959 - Orbited satellite *

- April 13, 1959 - Failed to orbit *

- June 22, 1959 - Failed to orbit 10.3 kg satellite *

(Vanguard TV4-BU, also Vanguard SLV-7) - September 18, 1959 - Orbited satellite

Specifications

*Stage Number: 1 - Vanguard **Mass: **Empty Mass: **Thrust (vac): **

Isp An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...

(sea level): **Burn time: 145 s **Diameter: **Length: **Propellants:

LOX Liquid oxygen—abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries—is the liquid form of molecular oxygen. It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an applica ...

Kerosene Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning "wax", and was regi ...

**Engines:

X-405 *Stage Number: 2 - Delta A **Mass: **Empty Mass: **Thrust (vac): **Isp: **Burn time: 115 s **Diameter: **Length: **Propellants:

Nitric acid Nitric acid is the inorganic compound with the formula . It is a highly corrosive mineral acid. The compound is colorless, but older samples tend to be yellow cast due to decomposition into oxides of nitrogen. Most commercially available nitri ...

UDMH Unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH; 1,1-dimethylhydrazine, НДМГ or codenamed Geptil) is a chemical compound with the formula H2NN(CH3)2 that is used as a rocket propellant. It is a colorless liquid, with a sharp, fishy, ammonia-like smell ...

**Engines:

Aerojet Aerojet was an American rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer based primarily in Rancho Cordova, California, with divisions in Redmond, Washington, Orange and Gainesville in Virginia, and Camden, Arkansas. Aerojet was owned by GenCorp. ...

AJ10-37 *Stage Number: 3 - Vanguard 3 **Mass: **Empty Mass: **Thrust (vac): **Isp: **Burn time: 31 s **Isp (sea level): **Diameter: **Length: **Propellants: Solid **Engines: Grand Central 33KS2800

References

External links

Vanguard - A History - NASA SP-4202 online

The Vanguard Satellite Launching Vehicle: An Engineering Summary - NASA (PDF)

From Robert Goddard to Vanguard.
{{US launch systems 1956 in spaceflight 1957 in spaceflight 1958 in spaceflight 1959 in spaceflight Project Vanguard Rockets and missiles Space launch vehicles of the United States Microsatellite launch vehicles Articles containing video clips