Vanguard TV-1
The launch of the Vanguard TV-1 rocket
NamesVanguard Test Vehicle-1
Vanguard Test Vehicle-One
Mission typeVanguard test flight
OperatorNaval Research Laboratory
Mission durationSuborbital flight
Start of mission
Launch date1 May 1957, 06:09 GMT
RocketVanguard TV-1
Launch siteCape Canaveral, LC-18A
ContractorGlenn L. Martin Company
End of mission
Decay dateSuborbital flight
Orbital parameters
Altitude203.6 km (126.5 mi)
 

Vanguard TV-1, also called Vanguard Test Vehicle-One, was the second sub-orbital test flight of a Vanguard rocket as part of the Project Vanguard. Vanguard TV-1 followed the successful launch of Vanguard TV-0 a one-stage rocket launched in December 1956.

Project Vanguard was a program managed by the United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), and designed and built by the Glenn L. Martin Company (now Lockheed-Martin), which intended to launch the first artificial satellite into Earth orbit using a Vanguard rocket[1] as the launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral Missile Annex, Florida.

Vanguard TV-1 arrived at Cape Canaveral in February 1957. TV-1 was a two-stage rocket. Vanguard TV-1 used a liquid rocket from a modified Viking rocket for the first stage. The second stage was made by Grand Central Rocket Company. The second stage was a prototype solid-propellant rocket. This solid-propellant second stage later became the third stage of the final three-stage Vanguard vehicle. Three stages are needed to put a satellite in orbit, the goal of Vanguard.

Vanguard TV-1 lifted off on 1 May 1957 at 01:29local time (06:29 GMT) from Cape Canaveral from launch pad LC-18A. Launch pad 18A was an older Viking launch stand that was shipped from White Sands Missile Range for use at the Cape Canaveral. Pad 18A was also used on Vanguard Test Vehicle-Zero (Vanguard TV-0).

The main goal of Vanguard TV-1 was to test the solid-propellant rocket. The solid-propellant rocket needed to spin-up, separate from the first-stage booster, ignite, provide a proper propulsion and trajectory. Another goal was to test the techniques and equipment used to launch and track the rocket. The telemetry received during flight would record the proper propulsion and trajectory. The telemetry was picked up at the Air Force Missile Test Center's (AFMTC) tracking station. Vanguard TV-1 was successful, the two stage rocket achieved an altitude of 195 km (121 mi) and a down range of 726 km (451 mi), landing in the Atlantic Ocean.[2][3][4][5][6]

With Vanguard TV-0 and Vanguard TV-1 success, the next sub-orbital test flight, Vanguard TV-2, was launched in October 1957.

Background

Vanguard TV-0 and Vanguard TV-1 success was an important part of the Space Race. The Space Race started between United States and the Soviet Union at the end of World War II, as a race began to retrieve as many V-2 rockets and Nazi Germany V-2 staff as possible.[7] Three hundred rail-car loads of V-2 rocket weapons and parts were captured and shipped to the United States, also 126 of the principal designers of the V-2, including Wernher von Braun and Walter Dornberger, went to America. Von Braun, his brother Magnus von Braun, and seven others decided to surrender to the United States military in Operation Paperclip to ensure they were not captured by the advancing Soviets or shot dead by the Nazis to prevent their capture.[8] Thus the V-2 program started the Space Race, the V-2 could not orbit, but could reach a height of 88 km (55 mi) on long range trajectory and up to 206 km (128 mi) if launched vertically.[9][10][11]

Due to later problems with Vanguard it was not the first rocket to put into orbit an unmanned satellite. The first small-lift launch vehicle was the Sputnik rocket, it put into orbit an unmanned orbital carrier rocket designed by Sergei Korolev in the Soviet Union, derived from the R-7 Semyorka ICBM. On 4 October 1957, the Sputnik rocket was used to perform the world's first satellite launch, placing Sputnik 1 satellite into a low Earth orbit.[12][13][14]

The United States responded by launching the Vanguard rocket,[1][15] that 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 TV-3, to quickly orbit the Explorer 1 satellite using a Juno I rocket launched on 1 February 1958. Thus Vanguard 1 was the second successful U.S. orbital launch. Thus started the Space Race, that gave the drive to put men on the Moon with the Apollo program.[16][17]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "The Vanguard Satellite Launching Vehicle — An Engineering Summary", B. Klawans, April 1960, 212 pages Martin Company Engineering Report No 11022 Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  2. ↑ "NASA History, Chapter 10". history.nasa.gov. NASA. Retrieved 24 December 2015. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  3. ↑ Vanguard: A History, By Constance McLaughlin Green and Milton Lomask Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  4. ↑ "U.S. space-rocket liquid propellant engines". b14643.de. Archived from the original on 1 November 2015. Retrieved 24 June 2015.
  5. ↑ Winter, Frank H. (1990). "Chapter 3 — Rockets Enter the Space Age". Rockets Into Space. Harvard University Press. p. 66. Retrieved 24 June 2015.
  6. ↑ Vanguard: A History, page 282, By Constance McLaughlin Green and Milton Lomask Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  7. ↑ "We Want with the West", Time Magazine, 9 December 1946
  8. ↑ "Wernher von Braun". Retrieved 4 July 2009. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  9. ↑ "Bumper Project". White Sands History - Fact Sheets and Articles. U.S. Army. Archived from the original on 10 January 2008. Retrieved 2 December 2007. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  10. ↑ "Long-range" in the context of the time. See NASA history article Archived 2009-01-07 at the Wayback Machine Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  11. ↑ Neufeld, Michael J. (1995). The Rocket and the Reich: Peenemünde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era. New York: The Free Press. pp. 158, 160–2, 190.
  12. ↑ "Display: Sputnik 1 1957-001B". nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov. NASA. 14 May 2020. Retrieved 8 February 2021. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  13. ↑ "Sputnik launch vehicle 8K71PS (M1-1PS)". Russian Space Web. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
  14. ↑ (in Russian) Sputnik Rocket
  15. ↑ "Vanguard Project - U.S. Naval Research Laboratory". nrl.navy.mil. NRL. Retrieved 24 December 2015. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  16. ↑ "Memorandum for Vice President". The White House (Memorandum). Boston, Maine: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. 20 April 1961. Retrieved 1 August 2013.
  17. ↑ Launius, Roger D. (July 1994). "President John F. Kennedy Memo for Vice President, 20 April 1961" (PDF). Apollo: A Retrospective Analysis. Monographs in Aerospace History Number 3. Washington, D.C.: NASA. OCLC 31825096. Retrieved 1 August 2013. Key Apollo Source Documents Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

Further reading

  • Mallove, Eugene F. and Matloff, Gregory L.; The Starflight Handbook: A Pioneer's Guide to Interstellar Travel, Wiley, ISBN 0-471-61912-4
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