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 pads, supported by a launch control center and ...

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 radioi ...

into orbit. Instead, the Sputnik crisis caused by the surprise launch of Sputnik 1 led the U.S., after the failure of Vanguard TV-3, to quickly orbit the Explorer 1 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 ve ...

rocket, making Vanguard 1 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 between the United States and the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

Overview

In 1955, the United States announced plans to put a scientific satellite in orbit for the International Geophysical Year (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 Dy ...

, a derivative of the

Army Ballistic Missile Agency The Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) was formed to develop the 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 B. Medaris with Wernher von ...

'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,

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 ...

and CIA had long pursued the idea of a reconnaissance satellite. 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 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 geograp ...

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 (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. Pendra ...

) 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 en ...

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 effective ...

. 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. 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 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 sh ...

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 ...

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

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, 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 Sputnik 1 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, and weighing only ) was added to Vanguard TV-3, which was to be the first test of an all-up Vanguard rocket. Although the NRL 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 ...

launched Vanguard TV-3 rocket, carrying a satellite, from Cape Canaveral. 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'' columnist Dorothy Kilgallen 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 ("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 Vanguard 1 satellite. By that time, however, the Army's Juno ( Jupiter-C) had already launched the United States' first satellite, Explorer 1. 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-2 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 clo ...

, 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 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 Grumm ...

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 1 (Vanguard TV4) - March 17, 1958 - Orbited satellite * Vanguard TV5 - April 28, 1958 - Failed to orbit satellite * Vanguard SLV-1 - May 27, 1958 - Failed to orbit 10.0 kg satellite * Vanguard SLV-2 - 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 3 (Vanguard TV4-BU, also Vanguard SLV-7) - September 18, 1959 - Orbited satellite

Specifications

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

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 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.
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