The Vanguard rocket was intended to be the first launch vehicle the United States would use to place a satellite into orbit. Instead, the Sputnik crisis caused by the surprise launch of Sputnik 1 led the U.S., after the failure of Vanguard TV3, to quickly orbit the Explorer 1 satellite using a Juno I rocket, making Vanguard I the second successful U.S. orbital launch.
Vanguard rockets were used by Project Vanguard from 1957 to 1959. Of the eleven...
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The Vanguard rocket was intended to be the first launch vehicle the United States would use to place a satellite into orbit. Instead, the Sputnik crisis caused by the surprise launch of Sputnik 1 led the U.S., after the failure of Vanguard TV3, to quickly orbit the Explorer 1 satellite using a Juno I rocket, making Vanguard I the second successful U.S. orbital launch.
Vanguard rockets were used by Project Vanguard from 1957 to 1959. Of the eleven Vanguard rockets which the project attempted to launch, three successfully placed satellites into orbit.
In 1955, the USA 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 possible candidates for the launch vehicle: The Air Force's SM-65 Atlas, a derivative of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency's SSM-A-14 Redstone, and a Navy proposal for a three-stage rocket based on the RTV-N-12a...
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