LAUNCH CENTER
Success
Tue Feb 17 1959
United States Navy
Vanguard II
Launch Successful
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RECOVERY OVERVIEW
Location
No Recovery Specified
Type
No Recovery Specified
Rocket Details
Name:
VanguardDescription:
The Vanguard rocket 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 TV3, to quickly orbit the Explorer 1 satellite using a Juno I rocket, making Vanguard I the second successful U.S. orbital launch.
MISSION OVERVIEW
- Type: Earth Science
- Vanguard II is an Earth orbiting satellite and the first weather satellite. It was designed to measure cloud-cover distribution over the daylight portion of its orbit for a period of 19 days and to provide information on the density of the atmosphere.
COMPLEX OVERVIEW
Location
Cape Canaveral, FL, USA
Pad
Launch Complex 18A