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In August 1955, the DOD Committee on Special Capabilities chose the NRL proposal as it appeared most likely to, by spring 1958, fulfill the following:
Project Vanguard was chosen from three proposals presented by the United States Air Force, the United States Army, and the United States Navy. The Army's ABMA under Dr. Wernher Von Braun had suggested using a modified Redstone rocket (see: Juno I) while the Air Force had proposed using the non-existent Atlas rocket.
Vanguard IVanguard 1 is the oldest still orbiting artificial satellite, though there is no longer communication with it. It is a small earth-orbiting satellite that was designed to test the launch capabilities of a three-stage launch vehicle and the effects of the, the world's longest orbiting man-made satellite, built by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and launched at Cape CanaveralCape Canaveral is a strip of land in Brevard County, Florida, near the center of the Atlantic coast. It is part of Merritt Island, in a region known as the Space Coast, and is the site of the Kennedy Space Center, and the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station., FloridaFlorida is a southern state in the United States. It is known as the Sunshine State. Florida" is a Spanish adjective which means "flowery". It was discovered by Spanish explorers during the Easter season, which is called Pascua Florida in Spanish. Postal, in 1958, marked its 45th year in space on March 17, 2003. In the years following Vanguard's launch, the small satellite has made more than 178,061 revolutions of the Earth and traveled over 5.1 billion nautical miles (9.4 billion km).
The first solar-powered satellite, Vanguard I was the second artificial satellite successfully placed in Earth orbit by the United States. (Vanguard's predecessors, Sputniks IThe Sputnik program was a series of unmanned space missions launched by the Soviet Union in the late 1950s to demonstrate the viability of artificial satellites. The name "Sputnik" ("") comes from Russian where it means "satellite" or "fellow traveller". and II and Explorer IExplorer-I officially known as Satellite 1958 Alpha was the first United States Earth satellite and was sent aloft as part of the United States program for the International Geophysical Year 1957-1958. It was designed and built by the Jet Propulsion Labor have long since fallen out of orbit.) Just six inches (152 mm) in diameter and weighing just 3 pounds (1.4 kg), Vanguard I was described by then-Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev1962 Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev ( Russian: ) (nih-KEE-tah khroo-SHCHYOFF) ( April 17, 1894 September 11, 1971) was a Soviet politician. Following a power struggle, he emerged as the leader of Soviet Union after the death of Joseph Stalin: he was First as "the grapefruit satellite."
As part of the scientific program for the International Geophysical Year (1957 - 1958), NRL was officially delegated the responsibility of placing an artificial satellite with a scientific experiment into orbit around the Earth. Designated Project Vanguard, the program was placed under Navy management and DoD monitorship.
NRL was responsible for developing the launch vehicles; developing and installing the satellite tracking system; and designing, constructing, and testing the satellites. The tracking system was called Minitrack. The Minitrack stations, designed, built, and initially operated by NRL, were along a North-South line running along the east coast of North America and the west coast of South America. Minitrack was the forerunner of another NRL-developed system called NAVSPASUR, which is operational today and a major producer of spacecraft tracking data.
In late 1958, responsibility for Project Vanguard was transferred to NASA, forming the nucleus of the Goddard Space Flight Center. After the transfer, NRL rebuilt their spacecraft technology capability and have developed some 87 satellites over the past 40 years for the Navy, DoD and NASA.
Vanguard met 100 percent of its scientific objectives, providing a wealth of information on the size and shape of the Earth, air density, temperature ranges, and micrometeorite impact. It proved that the Earth is pear-shaped, not round; corrected ideas about the atmosphere's density at high altitudes and improved the accuracy of world maps.
NRL space scientists say that the Vanguard I program introduced much of the technology that has since been applied in later U.S. satellite programs, from rocket launching to satellite tracking. For example, it proved that solar cells could be used for several years to power radio transmitters. Vanguard's solar cells operated for about seven years, while conventional batteries used to power another onboard transmitter lasted only 20 days.
Although Vanguard's solar-powered "voice" became silent in 1964, it continues to serve the scientific community. Ground-based tracking of the satellite provides data concerning the effects of the Sun, Moon and atmosphere on satellite orbits.
The Vanguard rocket launched 3 satellites out of 11 launch attempts:
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