Editing Project Vanguard (section)

{{Short description|U.S. Navy satellite program in the 1950s}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2022}}

[[File:Vanguard rocket vanguard1 satellite.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Vanguard rocket on [[Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 18|Pad LC-18A]]]]

'''Project Vanguard''' was a program managed by the [[United States Navy]] [[Naval Research Laboratory]] (NRL), which intended to launch the first [[Satellite|artificial satellite]] into [[low Earth orbit]] using a [[Vanguard (rocket)|Vanguard rocket]]<ref name="Vanguard">{{cite web|url=http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19740072500_1974072500.pdf|title="The Vanguard Satellite Launching Vehicle — An Engineering Summary"|author=B. Klawans|date=April 1960|pages=212|publisher=Glenn L. Martin Company|work=Report No 11022, PDF of an optical copy}}</ref> as the [[launch vehicle]] from [[Cape Canaveral Space Force Station|Cape Canaveral Missile Annex]], [[Florida]].

In response to the launch of [[Sputnik 1]] on 4 October 1957, the U.S. restarted the [[Explorers Program|Explorer program]], which had been proposed earlier by the [[Army Ballistic Missile Agency]] (ABMA). Privately, however, the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) and [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|President Dwight D. Eisenhower]] were aware of progress being made by the [[Soviet people|Soviets]] on Sputnik from secret spy plane imagery.<ref>PBS.org - NOVA: Sputnik Declassified</ref> Together with the [[Jet Propulsion Laboratory]] (JPL), ABMA built [[Explorer 1]] and launched it on 1 February 1958 ([[Coordinated Universal Time|UTC]]). Before work was completed, however, the [[Soviet Union]] launched a second satellite, [[Sputnik 2]], on 3 November 1957. Meanwhile, the spectacular failure of [[Vanguard TV3]] on 6 December 1957, deepened American dismay over the country's position in the [[Space Race]].

On 17 March 1958, [[Vanguard 1]] became the second artificial satellite successfully placed in a low Earth orbit by the United States. It was the first [[solar energy|solar-powered]] satellite. Just {{cvt|15.2|cm}} in diameter and weighing {{cvt|1.4|kg}}, Vanguard 1 was described by then-[[Soviet Premier]] [[Nikita Khrushchev]] as, "The grapefruit satellite".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://code8200.nrl.navy.mil/vanguard.html|title=Vanguard 1 - the World's Oldest Satellite Still in Orbit|publisher=Spacecraft Engineering Department, U.S. Navy|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080919152144/http://code8200.nrl.navy.mil/vanguard.html|archive-date=2008-09-19}} {{PD-notice}}</ref> Vanguard 1, and the upper stage of its launch vehicle, are the oldest artificial satellites still in space, as Vanguard's predecessors, Sputnik 1, Sputnik 2, and Explorer 1, have decayed from orbit.