Vanguard 3

Launch Partial Failure

Liftoff Time (GMT)

05:20:07

Friday September 18, 1959

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Mission Details

Launch Notes

Orbit too low. Last flight of Vanguard.

Vanguard 3

Vanguard 3 was launched by a modified Vanguard rocket 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 11 December 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 yr.

Medium Earth Orbit

1 Payload

23 kilograms

Rocket

Retired
Vanguard

Active 1957 to 1959

United States Navy logo

Agency

US Navy

Rocket

Height: 23m

Payload to Orbit

LEO: 10 kg

Liftoff Thrust

135 Kilonewtons

Stages

3

Launch Site

LC-18A

Cape Canaveral SFS, Florida, USA

Fastest Turnaround

29 days

Stats

Vanguard


11th

Mission

4th

Mission of 1959

1959


18th

Orbital launch attempt