1957–1969: Opening the Space Age
Vanguard 1
Early geodesy satellite; long-lived orbital tracking improved Earth-shape studies.
Era 1 of 6 · full record in the catalog
- Launch
- 17 Mar 1958
- Lead / partner
- United States
- Target
- Earth orbit
- Category
- Geodesy / Earth science
- Status
- Success
- Vehicle
- Vanguard TV-4
- Mass
- unknown
- Orbit / trajectory
- Geocentric orbit
- Duration
- 90 days (planned) (in orbit)
Why it happened
Vanguard 1 flew during 1957–1969: Opening the Space Age, as part of United States's work toward earth orbit. A sourced write-up of the context around this mission is still on the editorial queue; nothing here is invented to fill the gap.
The mission
The full narrative of this mission is pending research and writing. What is recorded so far: Early geodesy satellite; long-lived orbital tracking improved Earth-shape studies.
Results
Early geodesy satellite; long-lived orbital tracking improved Earth-shape studies.
Related missions
Sources & image credits
- Marcoaliaslama, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0 · license: cc-by-4.0 (source, checked 2026-08-23)
- Mission record: AntarikshPedia canonical dataset (data-sources/missions_timeline.md)
- Specifications reference: NASA NSSDCA Master Catalog
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