Vanguard 1

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2nd US Satellite: Vanguard 1 1958 NASA; Oldest Satellite Still in Orbit

Jeff Quitney
Published on Jul 13, 2018

"On March 17, (1958) a Vanguard I rocket launched an Earth satellite with solar batteries. Data from the mission was used to determine that the Earth is slightly pear-shaped.

From "U.S. Space Explorations 1958", NASA Langley Research Center film L-703.

Vanguard 1 (ID: 1958-Beta 2) was the fourth artificial Earth orbital satellite to be successfully launched (following Sputnik 1, Sputnik 2, and Explorer 1). Vanguard 1 was the first satellite to have solar electric power. Although communication with the satellite was lost in 1964, it remains the oldest man-made object still in orbit, together with the upper stage of its launch vehicle. It was designed to test the launch capabilities of a three-stage launch vehicle as a part of Project Vanguard, and the effects of the space environment on a satellite and its systems in Earth orbit. It also was used to obtain geodetic measurements through orbit analysis. Vanguard 1 was described by the Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev, as "the grapefruit satellite".

Spacecraft design

The spacecraft is a 1.47 kg (3.2 lb) aluminum sphere 16.5 cm (6.4 inches) in diameter. It contains a 10 mW, 108 MHz transmitters powered by a mercury battery and a 5 mW, 108.03 MHz transmitter that was powered by six solar cells mounted on the body of the satellite. Six short antennas protrude from the sphere. The transmitters were used primarily for engineering and tracking data but were also used to determine the total electron content between the satellite and the ground stations. Vanguard also carries two thermistors which measured the interior temperature over sixteen days in order to record the effectiveness of the thermal protection.

A backup version of Vanguard 1 is on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.

Mission

On March 17, 1958, the three-stage launch vehicle placed Vanguard into a 654-by-3,969-kilometer (353 nmi × 2,143 nmi), 134.2 minute elliptical orbit inclined at 34.25 degrees. Original estimates had the orbit lasting for 2,000 years, but it was discovered that solar radiation pressure and atmospheric drag during high levels of solar activity produced significant perturbations in the perigee height of the satellite, which caused a significant decrease in its expected lifetime to only about 240 years. Vanguard 1 transmitted its signals for nearly seven years as it orbited the Earth.

The Vanguard 1 satellite and upper launch stage hold the record for being in space longer than any other man-made object.

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Originally a public domain film from NASA, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.
The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF5clG_ycVw
 

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