The US Navy’s Vanguard launch vehicle was to be America’s first rocket to put a satellite into orbit. As we all know, the first orbital attempt was a dismal failure.
[youtube 0ZzgpSxsjAE]
Vanguard launch TV-3 was on December 6, 1957, and achieved the staggering altitude of four feet before losing thrust and toppling over (I’ve always wondered at the relative ease with which the nosecone seems to just fall off). This was on live TV, somewhat different to how the Soviets were doing it at the time.
[youtube zVeFkakURXM]
The next Vanguard launch, TV-3BU, was on February 5, 1958, and made it 57 seconds before breaking up. The next launch was TV-4 on March 17, 1958, and succeeded in placing the Vanguard satellite in orbit… where it still is (mankind’s oldest artifact in space.
Let me repeat: Failed on December 6, failed on February 5, succeeded on March 17. Less than two months between launch attempts, even after failures. Try to imagine the US launch industry trying that today.
5 Responses to “Vanguard Launch Vehicle”
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At least we made it to the moon,man wise where they didn’t.
Ed Herlihy + music + rocket going more outward than upward? Classic, that.
Jim
You think that as a fast turnaround between flops, check out those first 12 unsuccessful Corona launches:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona_%28satellite%29#Launches
They obviously wanted that thing up and running ASAP.
I always wanted to get that cutaway Palmer/Renwal model of the Vanguard rocket as a kid; here’s its instruction booklet in PDF format:
http://www.ninfinger.org/models/kitplans/palmer106.pdf
I’ve always liked this and the early Atlas Centaurs as being what rockets should look like. In some ways, the Saturn V–especially if it were done in N-1s colors, actually looks more Soviet. N-1 with the Saturns paint job maight be interesting to see.