March 17 and in the day Saint Patrick 1958, United States Navy Vanguard-1launched the first satellite with solar energy.
Vanguard-1
Vanguard-1 is an American satellite that was the fourth artificial satellite in Earth orbit. This satellite after Sputnik-1, Sputnik-2 And Explorer-1 It was launched and its launcher was the Delta-7 rocket.
This satellite is very similar to a miniature and small version of Sputnik and is considered very small compared to the satellites before it.
The weight of this satellite reached 1.5 kg and it could be carried with only one hand. Soviet Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev It’s a satellite Grapefruit (Narangur) had described. Vanguard-1 was used to determine the density of the upper atmosphere due to its symmetrical shape, but the main purpose of the mission was to test a new three-stage rocket.
The fate of the satellite
Solar technology allowed the satellite to send signals to Earth for seven years, while battery-powered satellites could not even last a month.
Communication with Vanguard-1 was lost in 1964, but the satellite, along with its launch vehicle upper stage, is the oldest man-made object still in orbit.
Vanguard-1 was expected to remain in the sky for up to two thousand years, but solar radiation pressure and post-atmospheric disturbances during periods of solar activity affected its perigee and shortened its lifespan.
Scientists think that this satellite will go out of orbit and burn up in the atmosphere by 2198.
