Happy Birthday Little Grapefruit!

newsartist · Mar 16, 2008

We have more than Shamrocks and green beer to celebrate tomorrow for Saint Patrick’s Day,… the launch of the oldest man-made object still in orbit.  The Cold war was in full swing 50 years ago. The Soviets had orbited Sputniks 1 and 2 a few months before, and their public relations, image gained a monumental benefit.   Those launches were unexpected by the public. In contrast, the USA had been planning a satellite launch as part of the International Geophysical Year, and was expected to be first.  As the name implies, the IGY was a huge multinational effort to study the Earth, involving all scientific disciplines. The US Army and Navy proposed satellite projects. President Eisenhower favored a third plan; Project Vanguard.  Vanguard was a ‘civilian’ effort, …a point important to the President. In reality, all three services participated. The Naval Research Labortory oversaw the booster, developed from the Martin Viking research rockets. The Army provided tracking and the Air Force the Cape Canaveral launch site.  Two suborbital flights had been made as booster tests, when the third flight was pushed ahead, by the Russian developments, as the first satellite launch. It was a launch pad failure on December 6. Newspapers ran large cover photos of the fireball the next day, with headlines like, “Kaputnik”.  That gave Von Braun’s Army team the “go ahead” to execute the Redstone Arsenal plan that had been passed over in favor of Vanguard. Explorer 1 became the first US satellite at the end of January.  Vanguard failed again on February 5, but everything worked on St. Patrick’s Day, when Vanguard 1 launched at 12:15:41 Greenwich Time on March 17, 1958.The, now silent, little 6.4 inch sphere is expected to continue orbiting for over a hundred years more. The original thought was that it would last for 2,000 years, but it proved the fact that the atmosphere responds to solar activity, and that date has been revised downward.  The battery powered radio expired within a few months, but it was also the first spacecraft to use solar power. The radio powered by those cells, quit working in May 1964.  During that time, and after, tracking of its orbit provided valuable surveying information about the Earth.  When NASA was formed on July 29th of that year, the Vanguard team formed the core of the new Goddard spaceflight Center, (…just as Von Braun’s team became the Marshall Spaceflight Center.) Happy 50th Birthday, Little Grapefruit! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

3488 · Mar 16, 2008

Cheers,50 years in Earth Orbit. I wonder if it could be retrieved? The amount that we would learn, the rate of micrometeorid impacts, radiation effects, etc.Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> "I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before". Linda Morabito on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.http://www.launchphotography.com/ http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearthhttp://web.me.com/meridianijournal </div>

newsartist · Mar 16, 2008

Replying to: <DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'> I wonder if it could be retrieved? The amount that we would learn, the rate of micrometeorid impacts, radiation effects, etc.... Posted by 3488</DIV>It'll be up there a while yet, (if it doesn't get run down by other space junk.)I think it could be very valuable. Hopefully some other future mission can be tweaked to add that extra task?The Vanguard 1 satellite on display at the Smithsonian has flown too, but lacks the long duration exposure to space; it was aboard the December flight that went 'boom' on the pad and was thrown clear of the fireball. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

moonmadness · Mar 17, 2008

Replying to: <DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'> Happy 50th Birthday, Little Grapefruit! Posted by newsartist</DIV> What is a Grapefruit Comrade newsartist?

<div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> I'm not a rocket scientist, but I do play one on the TV in my mind. </div>

Swampcat · Mar 18, 2008

"What is a Grapefruit Comrade newsartist?

" -- moonmadness <img src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/Content/images/store/7/12/17400031-96aa-4b21-acd4-dd294ad9575d.Medium.jpg" alt="" />Grapefruit <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> ------------------------------------------------------------------- "I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions, indeed, generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions as not to discourage them too much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government."Thomas Jefferson </div>

holmec · Mar 18, 2008

Great history! thanks for the info. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> "SCE to AUX" - John Aaron, curiosity pays off </div>

3488 · Mar 20, 2008

[QUOTE]"What is a Grapefruit Comrade newsartist?

" -- moonmadnessGrapefruit Posted by Swampcat[/QUOTE] <img src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/Content/images/store/10/3/1a2a939f-efd0-463d-83a3-9f749a5fefca.Medium.gif" alt="" />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> "I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before". Linda Morabito on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.http://www.launchphotography.com/ http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearthhttp://web.me.com/meridianijournal </div>

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