Vanguard 3
Vanguard 3
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| Mission type | Earth Science |
|---|---|
| Operator | Department of the Navy |
| Harvard designation | 1959 Eta 1 |
| SATCAT № | 20 |
| Mission duration | 84 days |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Manufacturer | Naval Research Laboratory |
| Launch mass | 22.7 kilograms (50 lb) |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | September 18, 1959, 05:20:07 UTC |
| Rocket | Vanguard SLV-7 |
| Launch site | Cape Canaveral LC-18A |
| End of mission | |
| Last contact | December 11, 1959 |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Medium Earth |
| Semi-major axis | 8,270.21 kilometers (5,138.87 mi) |
| Eccentricity | 0.167292 |
| Perigee | 515 kilometers (320 mi) |
| Apogee | 3,282 kilometers (2,039 mi) |
| Inclination | 33.36 degrees |
| Period | 124.75 minutes |
| Epoch | 24 January 2015, 03:46:03 UTC |
| Instruments | |
| Proton Precessional Magnetometer Micrometeorite Detectors Satellite Drag Atmospheric Density X-Ray Experiment |
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Vanguard 3 (international designation 1959 Eta 1) is a scientific satellite that was launched into Earth orbit by a Vanguard rocket SLV-7 on September 18, 1959, the third successful Vanguard launch out of eleven attempts. Vanguard rocket: Vanguard Satellite Launch Vehicle 7 (SLV-7) was an unused Vanguard TV-4BU (TVBU = Test Vehicle four Back up) rocket, updated to the finial production Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV).
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. as the launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral Missile Annex, Florida. Vanguard 3 was an important part of the space race between the USA and the Soviet Union.
The satellite was launched from the Eastern Test Range into a geocentric orbit. The objectives of the flight were to measure the Earth's magnetic field, the solar X-ray radiation and its effects on the Earth's atmosphere, and the near-Earth micrometeoroid environment. Instrumentation included a proton magnetometer, X-ray ionization chambers, and various micrometeoroid detectors. The spacecraft was a 50.8-cm-diameter magnesium sphere. The magnetometer was housed in a glass fiber phenolic resin conical tube attached to the sphere. Data transmission stopped on December 11, 1959, after 84 days of operation. The data obtained provided a comprehensive survey of the Earth's magnetic field over the area covered, defined the lower edge of the Van Allen radiation belt, and provided a count of micrometeoroid impacts. Vanguard 3 has an expected orbital lifetime of 300 years.
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