Vanguard

In case we've all forgotten, it was 50 years ago today that America's first
satellite launch ended in an embarrassing failure.

The Vanguard was not known for it's reliability; 8 of it's 12 flights
failed.

thewi wrote:
In case we've all forgotten, it was 50 years ago today that America's first
satellite launch ended in an embarrassing failure.

The Vanguard was not known for it's reliability; 8 of it's 12 flights
failed.


Probably better we didn't launch the Shuttle today then; The Russians
had a lulu of a rocket explosion on the anniversary of the Nedelin
disaster several years back and launches nothing on that date now.

Pat

On Thu, 06 Dec 2007 14:12:34 -0600, in a place far, far away, Pat
Flannery made the phosphor on my monitor glow in
such a way as to indicate that:



thewi wrote:
In case we've all forgotten, it was 50 years ago today that America's first
satellite launch ended in an embarrassing failure.

The Vanguard was not known for it's reliability; 8 of it's 12 flights
failed.


Probably better we didn't launch the Shuttle today then;

Why?

The Russians
had a lulu of a rocket explosion on the anniversary of the Nedelin
disaster several years back and launches nothing on that date now.

So? The fact that they don't doesn't mean they shouldn't. That's
simply superstition, which has (or should have) no place in
engineering decisions.

On 06 Dec 2007 19:47:19 GMT, thewi wrote:

In case we've all forgotten, it was 50 years ago today that America's first
satellite launch ended in an embarrassing failure.

The Vanguard was not known for it's reliability; 8 of it's 12 flights
failed.

And yet, Vanguard 1 is the only one of the early satellites still up
there...

Brian

On Dec 6, 4:38 pm, Brian Thorn wrote:
On 06 Dec 2007 19:47:19 GMT, thewi wrote:

In case we've all forgotten, it was 50 years ago today that America's first
satellite launch ended in an embarrassing failure.

The Vanguard was not known for it's reliability; 8 of it's 12 flights
failed.

And yet, Vanguard 1 is the only one of the early satellites still up
there...

Brian

Vanguard was a successful program. Its goal was to launch at least
one satellite during the IGY: it launched three. It was indeed far
over budget, though only slightly behind schedule. However, it
contributed advances in guidance, propulsion, and other technologies
that lived on for decades in boosters like the Thor-Delta.
Vanguard's problem is that it had its first failure at the worst
possible time. The TV-3 launch was just that - a test vehicle - which
was hyped by the White House as America's response to Sputnik.

Matt Bille
Author, "The First Space Race: Launching the World's First
Satellites" (TAMU, 2004)

Matt wrote in
news:

Vanguard was a successful program. Its goal was to launch at least
one satellite during the IGY: it launched three. It was indeed far
over budget, though only slightly behind schedule. However, it
contributed advances in guidance, propulsion, and other technologies
that lived on for decades in boosters like the Thor-Delta.
Vanguard's problem is that it had its first failure at the worst
possible time. The TV-3 launch was just that - a test vehicle - which
was hyped by the White House as America's response to Sputnik.

True, and if you look at the Vanguard's launch record, the only low
altitude failure besides TV-3 was TV-3BU, which disintegrated because of a
guidance system problem. The rest were due to upper stage malfunctions.

On 06 Dec 2007 19:47:19 GMT, thewi wrote:

In case we've all forgotten, it was 50 years ago today that America's first
satellite launch ended in an embarrassing failure.

....I hadn't forgotten "Kaputnik", but due to some pressing family
matters I was unable to post the reminder this morning as planned.
Notable links follow:

http://www.astronautix.com/craft/vanuard1.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanguard_1
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/maste...o?sc=1958-002B
http://home.swipnet.se/~w-52936/index20.htm
http://www.nrl.navy.mil/content.php?P=VANGUARD
http://www.nasm.si.edu/spacecraft/SS-vanguard.htm
http://astronauticsnow.com/vanguard/
http://zoharesque.blogspot.com/2006/...anguard-1.html
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/features/.../firstsat.html
http://www.cira.colostate.edu/cira/R...r/Vanguard.htm
http://www.heavens-above.com/satinfo.asp?satid=5
http://www.ericweisstein.com/encyclo...dVanguard.html
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/satellite-tech-03c.html

YouTube clips
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkEyE...eature=related -
Pre-launch propaganda!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK6a6...eature=related - Flopnik!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tSFY...eature=related - In living
color!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVTW3...eature=related - Flopnik
#2!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msLSW1U1t1U - A successful launch!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgyhl...eature=related - Vanguard
II "Weather Eye"


OM
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Brian Thorn wrote:

The Vanguard was not known for it's reliability; 8 of it's 12 flights
failed.


And yet, Vanguard 1 is the only one of the early satellites still up
there...



Aren't one or more of our early Pioneer Moon probes in solar orbit?

Pat

OM wrote in
news:

...I hadn't forgotten "Kaputnik", but due to some pressing family
matters I was unable to post the reminder this morning as planned.
Notable links follow:

The attempted launch of a lunar probe by a Thor Able in August 1958 was
another widely publicized failure. I've never seen any pictures or video of
that one.

In sci.space.history message ,
Thu, 6 Dec 2007 21:06:59, Rand Simberg
posted:

So? The fact that they don't doesn't mean they shouldn't. That's
simply superstition, which has (or should have) no place in
engineering decisions.

Search for "A Random Walk in Science" by Robert L. Weber, page 14, foot;
can be found at books.google.com by +physicist +horseshoe +believe
+Cohen.

There's a version at the end of sec. 8 of
http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:X...ino.edu/academ
ics/naturalsciences/Physics/doc/Anecdotes.doc+%2Bphysicist+%2Bhorseshoe+
%2Bbelieve+%2Bcohen&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=10&gl=uk.

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