Spacecrafts launched in 1958

Home	1958 Summary
1957 spacecraft	1959 spacecraft

The 28 spacecraft launched in 1958:

1)	Explorer 1	2)	Vanguard TV-3bu	3)	Explorer 2	4)	Vanguard I
5)	Explorer 3	6)	"Sputnik" / Object D #1	7)	Vanguard TV-5	8)	Sputnik 3 / Object D #2
9)	Vanguard SLV-1	10)	Vanguard SLV-2	11)	NOTS 1 / Pilot 1	12)	Explorer 4
13)	NOTS 2 / Pilot 2	14)	Able 1 / "Pioneer 0"	15)	NOTS 3 / Pilot 3	16)	Explorer 5
17)	NOTS 4 / Pilot 4	18)	NOTS 5 / Pilot 5	19)	NOTS 6 / Pilot 6	20)	"Luna" / Ye-1 #1
21)	Vanguard SLV-3	22)	Able 2 / Pîoneer 1	23)	"Luna" / Ye-1 #2	24)	Beacon 1
25)	Able 3 / Pioneer 2	26)	"Luna" / Ye-1 #3	27)	Pioneer 3	28)	SCORE / Project Score

Historical Perspectives - Table: 1957-58 Launches

Spacecraft Entries

Warning:

Satellite descriptions that follow contained some ‘contradictory data’, notably spacecraft’s weights and orbital altitudes. This reflects the fact that data differ from source to source and changed with time. We publish these ‘inaccuracies’ to show that even simple historical facts are hard to establish.

Explorer 1

Spacecraft:

Chronologies:

1958 payload #1 ; 1958-001A (1958 Alpha 1) ; 4th spacecraft ; 4th space object catalogued.

Type:

Earth/space Sciences

Significant
achievements:

•	1st successful launch of a U.S. satellite (2nd attempt).
•	Discover Van Allen radiation Belts, one of the most fundamental discoveries of the Space Age.
•	The satellite lasted 12 years in orbit, much more than the first two Sputniks.

Sponsor:

U.S. AMBA / JPL (Army Ballistic Missile Agency & Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

Launch:

1st February 1958 at 3h48 UT, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's LC-26A, by a Jupiter C.

Orbit:

360 km x 2,531 km x 33.34° x 114.8 min.	A&A
356 km x 2,548 km x 33.2° x 114.8 min.	ESAM
356 km x 2,548 km x 33.2° x 114.8 min.	USCSP
356 km x 2,548 km x 33.3° x 114.7 min.	TRW
347 km x 1,859 km x 33.2° x 107.20 min.	Wade

Decayed:

31 March 1970 (transmitted until 23 May 1958).

Mission:

Historical reports: On 31 January 1958, the Army Jupiter-C - an elongated Redstone, topped by two stages composed of scaled-down Sergeant rockets in clusters, with a single rocket as fourth stage - was fired successfully from the Atlantic Missile Range, Cape Canaveral, Florida. Explorer I, as its scientific payload was christened, is a bullet-shaped, steel cylinder 2 metres long and 15 cm in diameter. It weighs 14 kg, 5 kg of which are scientific instruments, including a Geiger-Mueller cosmic ray counting tube, two micro-meteor detector experiments, and four gauges to measure temperature inside the satellite and on its outer skin.
     Explorer I is credited with what is probably the most important satellite discovery of the IGY: the Great Radiation Belt, identified by James A. Van Allen, head of the State University of Iowa physics department. Preliminary examination of data from Explorer I reveals the existence of a pair of bands or clouds of charged particles, protons or electrons, or both. Apparently, the first radiation belt extends to 5,500 km above the surface of the Earth. The second belt, about 6,500 km thick, extends outward some 13,000 to 19,000 km. When these particles, streaming from the Sun or other sources deep in space, reach the Earth's magnetic field, some are deflected, a few filter through and are absorbed in the atmosphere, but a great many oscillate in spiral paths along the magnetic field's lines of force. (USASA)
     Explorer I, first U.S. Earth satellite, launched by a modified ABMA-JPL Jupiter-C, with US-IGY scientific experiment of James A. Van Allen, which discovered the radiation belt around the Earth.
     Explorer I experiments: cosmic rays, micrometeorites, and temperatures. Total weight: 14.0 kg and scientific instrumentation: 5.2 kg. Transmitter stopped 23 May 1958 (Intermittent operation between 11 and 28 February). Made most important discovery of the IGY: the radiation belt around the Earth, identified by Van Allen. On 19 November 1960, Albert Hibbs of JPL reported that Explorer I had also discovered clouds of cosmic dust in its orbit, information found by continued examination of data obtained during the 4 months of satellite transmission. (A&A, 1961)
     On 1 May 1958, scientific findings from the two Explorer satellites disclosed an unexpected band of high-intensity radiation extending from 1,000 km above Earth to possibly an 13,000 km altitude. The radiation was described by Dr. James A. Van Allen as ”1,000 times as intense as could be attributed to cosmic rays.”
     On 31 January 1965, on its seventh anniversary, Explorer I. In defiance of the original predicted lifespan that should have ended some two years ago, continued to pass overhead every 104 min., with perigee of 344 km and apogee of 1,582 km. Trajectory plotters at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center believed the satellite would plunge into the atmosphere and burn in 1968. It had slowed down since launch but had logged 1,455 million km around the Earth. (The satellite finally decayed on 31 March 1970, after 12 years and two months.) * * * * * Current overview Third satellite put into Earth orbit and first U.S. success, Explorer 1 was developed by the U.S. Army"s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and carried the U.S.-IGY (International Geophysical Year) experiment of James Van Allen for the study of cosmic rays, micrometeorites, and for monitoring of the satellite's temperature. It carried a single Geiger-Mueller detector (to detect cosmic rays), micrometeorite detection was accomplished using both a wire grid (arrayed around the aft section of the rocket body) and an acoustic detector (placed in contact with the midsection).

The satellite itself was the fourth stage of the Jupiter C rocket (a Sergeant motors). It was cylindrical, 2.03 metres long and 0.152 metres in diameter. Four whip antennas were mounted symmetrically about the mid-section of the rocket. The spacecraft was spin stabilized. Its instrument package, mounted inside of the forward section of the rocket body, weighed 4.82 kg, while the on-orbit dry mass (including fourth stage casing): 13.97 kg. Explorer 1 transmitted until 23 May 1958.

Explorer 1 made one of the most significant discoveries of the Space Age: the Van Allen radiation belts around Earth (right) that durably trapped radiation in the Earth's magnetosphere. This invisible belt was dubbed the Van Allen Radiation Belt after the principal investigator of the cosmic ray experiment.

Historical perspectives:

Explorer 1 was launched on a modified Army Ballistic Missile Agency (AMBA) Jupiter C, on 31 January 1958 at 22h48 EST (local time), which is 3h48 UT on 1st February.
On 6 November 1957, Secretary of Defense McElroy directed the Department of the Army to launch a scientific satellite with the modified Jupiter-C test rocket. The satellite, carrying instruments selected by the National Academy of Sciences, would be a part of this country’s contribution to the IGY.

Naming the first
U.S.
satellite:

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, responsible for the fourth stage of the Jupiter C rocket and for the satellite, had called the effort "Project Deal" (a loser in a poker game always called for a new deal - and this satellite was the answer to the Russian Sputnik). On the day of the launch, ABMA proposed the name "Top Kick," which was not considered appropriate. The list of names was brought out again. All the names on the list had been crossed out and only the heading "Explorers" remained. Richard Hirsch, a member of the National Security Council's Ad Hoc Committee for Outer Space, suggested that the first American satellite be called simply "Explorer." The name was accepted and announced by the Secretary of the Army Wilbur M. Brucker, It indicated she mission of this first satellite: to explore the unknown.

Source:

Jonathan Space Report's Master List ; Mark Wade’s Encyclopedia Astronautica's 1958 Chronology ; National Space Science Data Center's 1958-001A ; United States Aeronautics and Space Activities, 1st Annual Report to Congress, 1959, p. 6-7 ; Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1915-1960, p. 92, 95, 98, 131, 140 ; Astronautics and Aeronautics 1965, p. 42 ; TRW Space Log 1996 (Vol. 32), p. 65 ; Vanguard, A History (NASA SP-4202) Chapter 12 & Explorer Flight Summary ; Origins of NASA Names (NASA SP-4402) Chapter 2 p. 49-50 ; Encyclopédie sociétique de l'astronautique mondial, 1971, Annexe 1 ; United States Civilian Space Program, 1958-1978, Vol. 1, 1981, p. 722, 1255 ; Gunter's Explorer 1 to 5 ; Celestrak's Satcat=1958 ;

http://www.celestrak.com/satcat/search.asp

Vanguard TV-3bu

Spacecraft:	Vanguard Test Satellite Backup
Chronologies:	1958 payload #2 ; 1958 1st loss ; 5th spacecraft.
Type:	Technology
Achievement:	3rd U.S. attempt to launch a satellite, 2nd failure.
Sponsor:	U.S. NRL / Naval Research Laboratory

Launch:	5 February 1958 at 7h33 UT, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's LC-18A, by a Vanguard.
Orbit:	6 km up.
Destroyed:	5 February 1958.
Mission:	Trial firing of an IGY Vanguard satellite by the Vanguard TV-3Bu launcher. Control lost after 57 seconds, at 6 km altitude; control system malfunction. Mass: 1.35 kg.
Source:	Jonathan Space Report's Master List ; Mark Wade’s Encyclopedia Astronautica's 1958 Chronology ; National Space Science Data Center's VAGT3B ; Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1915-1960, p. 95 ; TRW Space Log 1996 (Vol. 32), p. 65 ; Vanguard, A History (NASA SP-4202) Chapter 12 ; United States Civilian Space Program, 1958-1978, Vol. 1, 1981, p. 1255 ; Gunter's Vanguard (6.5in) ;

Explorer 2

Spacecraft:
Chronologies:	1958 payload #3 ; 1958 2nd loss ; 6th spacecraft.
Type:	Earth/space Sciences
Achievement:	4th U.S. attempt to launch a satellite, 3rd failure.
Sponsor:	U.S. AMBA / JPL (Army Ballistic Missile Agency & Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

Launch:	5 March 1958 at 18h28 UT, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's LC-26A, by a Jupiter C.
Orbit:	None.
Destroyed:	5 March 1958.
Mission:	Historical reports: Explorer II, launched under ARPA direction, failed to achieve orbit when the fourth stage did not ignite. * * * * * Current overview: Explorer 2 was identical to Explorer 1, except for addition of a tape recorder. It failed to orbit when the fourth stage of the rocket failed to ignite; impacted after 823 seconds. On-orbit dry mass: 14.52 kg (6 kg net).
Source:	Jonathan Space Report's Master List ; Mark Wade’s Encyclopedia Astronautica's 1958 Chronology ; National Space Science Data Center's EXPLR2 ; United States Aeronautics and Space Activities, 1st Annual Report to Congress, 1959, p. 8 ; Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1915-1960, p. 96 ; TRW Space Log 1996 (Vol. 32), p. 65 ; Vanguard: A History's Explorer Flight Summary ; United States Civilian Space Program, 1958-1978, Vol. 1, 1981, p. 722, 1255 ; Gunter's Explorer 1 to 5 ;

Vanguard I

Spacecraft:

Vanguard 1C / Vanguard Test Satellite

Chronologies:

1958 payload #4 ; 1958-002A (1958 Beta 2) ; 7th spacecraft ; 5th space object catalogued.

Type:

Earth/space Sciences

Significant
achievements:

•	2nd U.S. orbiting of a satellite (in 5 attempts).
•	1st Vanguard success (in 3 attempts).
•	Discovers that the Earth is pear-shape (not spherical). 1st geodesy satellite.
•	1st solar-powered (electricity) satellite (previous satellites were all battery-powered), with a much longuer operational life. (Transmitted many, may years.)
•	Oldest satellite still in orbit.

Sponsor:

U.S. NRL / Naval Research Laboratory

Launch:

17 March 1958 at 12h16 UT, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's LC-18A, by a Vanguard.

Orbit:

658 km x 3,955 km x ---° x 133.9 min.	A&A
650 km x 3,968 km x 34.25° x 134.18 min	ESAM
650 km x 3,968 km x 34.3° x 134.2 min.	USCSP
653 km x 3,987 km x 34.2° x 136.6 min.	TRW
654 km x 3,868 km x 34.2° x 133.20 min.	Wade
654 km x 3,969 km x 34,25° x 134.2 min.	NSSDC

Decayed

Still in orbit (for a thousands years?).

Mission:

Historical reports: Second U.S.-IGY satellite, Vanguard I, launched into orbit with the expectancy of perhaps a 1,000 years, a highly successful scientific satellite which proved that the Earth is slightly pear shaped. Operating on solar-powered batteries, it was still transmitting after 3 years in orbit.
     Vanguard I: 1st solar-powered batteries (1 transmitter ceased on 5 April 1958, the other will operate indefinitely). Scientific payload and total weight: 1.5 kg (27 kg second stage rocket casing also in orbit). Stability of orbit provided geodetic observations including determination that the Earth is slighter pear shaped. Estimated orbit lifetime of 200 to 1,000 years. (A&A, 1961)
     Vanguard I, a 1.5-kg test satellite, orbits the world every l3& minutes. The Army Map Service has been making electronic observations of the satellite from several Pacific islands to pinpoint the islands' locations more exactly. The satellite is also being used for more exact determination of the Earthfs shape. It is estimated the satellite will continue circling in space for hundreds of years. (USASA, 1959)
     On its second anniversary in orbit, on 13 March 1960, Vanguard I was still transmitting, after traveling 211,291,002 km. NASA reported that its orbit was being altered by solar pressure. * * * * *

Current overview: Fourth satellite put into Earth orbit (2nd U.S.),Vanguard 1 was a 1.47-kg satellite designed to test the launch capabilities of a three-stage launch vehicle and the effects of the environment on a satellite and its systems in Earth orbit. It also was used to obtain geodetic measurements through orbit analysis. The spacecraft was an aluminum sphere 16.5 cm in diameter. It contained a mercury-battery powered transmitter and a transmitter powered by six solar cells mounted on the body of the satellite. The transmitters were used primarily for engineering and tracking data, but were also used to determine the total electron content between the satellite and ground stations. Six 30-cm aerials protruded from the sphere. Vanguard also carried two thermistors which measured the interior temperature over 16 days in order to track the effectiveness of the thermal protection. The battery-powered transmitter stopped operating in August 1958 when the batteries ran down. There were no on-board propulsion, attitude control, guidance and control or on board computer.
     On 17 March 1963, the fifth anniversary of its orbiting, Vanguard I was still transmitting data. It had made more than 19,700 orbits and had slowed about 1/4 second from original 134 min., 27 sec. period. Present apogee: 3,937 km; perigee: 648 km. The satellite continued to provide useful data, including the slight pear-shape of the Earth and the effect of solar pressure.
     After six years in orbit (1964), Vanguard 1 was the only satellite orbited before 1959 that was still transmitting. Its solar powered transmitter operated until May 1964. On 12 February 1965, Vanguard I appeared to be silenced, tts radio signals had weakened to a point where NASA tracking engineers thought the satellite might never be heard from again. The 15-cm, 1.5-kg sphere was circling the globe every 134 minutes, and had an apogee of 3,929 and a perigee of 647 km. Nevertheless, the satellite continued to transmit some time to time therafter. On 17 March 1971, Vanguard I completed thirteen years in orbit and was still transmitting.
     Original estimates had the orbit lasting for 2000 years, but it was discovered that solar radiation pressure and atmospheric drag during high levels of solar activity produced significant perturbations in the perigee height of the satellite, which caused a significant decrease in its expected lifetime to only about 240 years.

Source:

Jonathan Space Report's Master List ; Mark Wade’s Encyclopedia Astronautica's 1958 Chronology ; National Space Science Data Center's 1958-002B ; Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1915-1960, p. 96, 120, 141 ; Vanguard, A History (NASA SP-4202) Chapter 12 ; NASA, Aeronautical and Astronautical Events of 1961, p.10 ; United States Aeronautics and Space Activities, 1st Annual Report to Congress, 1959, p. 0 ; Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1963, p. 96-7 ; Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1964, p. 107 ; Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1965, p. 67 ; Encyclopédie sociétique de l'astronautique mondial, 1971, Annexe 1 ; TRW Space Log 1996 (Vol. 32), p. 65 ; United States Civilian Space Program, 1958-1978, Vol. 1, 1981, p. 739, 1255 ; Gunter's Vanguard (6.5in) ; Celestrak's Satcat=1958 ;

Explorer 3

Spacecraft:

Chronologies:

1958 payload #5 ; 1958-003A (1958 Gamma 1) ; 8th spacecraft ; 6th space object catalogued.

Type:

Earth/space Sciences

Significant
achievements:

•	3rd U.S. orbiting of a satellite (in 6 attempts).
•	Provided radiation data, micrometeorite impacts and temperatures.

Sponsor:

U.S. AMBA / JPL (Army Ballistic Missile Agency & Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

Launch:

26 March 1958 at 17h38 UT, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's LC-5, by a Jupiter C.

Orbit:

195 km x 2,809 km x 33.4° x 115.87 min.	A&A
186 km x 2,799 km x 33.38° x 115.7 min.	ESAM
186 km x 2,799 km x 33.4° x 115.7 min.	USCSP
186 km x 2,799 km x 33.5° x 114.7 min.	TRW
186 km x 2,799 km x 33.4° x 115.70 min.	Wade

Decayed:

27 or 28 June 1958 (after 93 days; transmitted until 16 June 1958).

Mission:

Source:

Jonathan Space Report's Master List ; Mark Wade’s Encyclopedia Astronautica's 1958 Chronology ; National Space Science Data Center's 1958-003A ; United States Aeronautics and Space Activities, 1st Annual Report to Congress, 1959, p. 8-9 ; Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1915-1960, p. 96, 98, 141 ; TRW Space Log 1996 (Vol. 32), p. 65 ; Vanguard: A History's Explorer Flight Summary ; Encyclopédie sociétique de l'astronautique mondial, 1971, Annexe 1 ; United States Civilian Space Program, 1958-1978, Vol. 1, 1981, p. 722, 1255 ; Gunter's Explorer 1 to 5 ; Celestrak's Satcat=1958 ;

"Sputnik" / Object D #1

Spacecraft:

D-1 no. 2 / Object D or D-1

Chronologies:

1958 payload #6 ; 1958 3rd loss ; 9th spacecraft.

Type:

Earth/space Sciences

Significant
achievements:

•	1st truly Soviet science satellite.
•	Was scheduled to be the 1st Soviet satellite to be launched, but was replaced by ‘simplier’ satellites.
•	1st Soviet launch failure (kept top secret for decades).
•	Weighted a hundred times U.S. satellites.

Sponsor:

Soviet Union (Korolev's Desing Bureau)

Launch:	27 April 1958 at 9h01 UT, from Baykonur Cosmodrome's LC-1, by an A/"Sputnik". (Formerly: launched by a SL-1 from Tyuratam.)
Orbit:	None.
Mission:	Historical reports: Even a reference report like the Soviet Space Program 1971-75, published in 1976, had no knowledge of this failure. * * * * * Current overview: This spacecraft, called by the Russians Object D, was the first truly scientific satellite designed by the Soviet Union, and it was dedicated to the study of Earth's magnetosphere. It was a complex scientific laboratory, far more sophisticated than anything planned for launch at that time. It weighted 1,327 kg – a staggering mass at the time -, and consisted of a conical pressurized body and was powered by batteries for a lifetime of one month. It had no stabilisation systems. A tape recorder allowed playback of data from parts of the orbit beyond the range of ground stations. Scientific instruments included a magnetometer and field-mill electrometer to measure fields in space, four space radiation detectors to study cosmic and solar particle radiation, a mass spectrometer and two pressure gauges to analyze the rarified outer atmosphere, an ion trap to measure plasma, and a piezoelectric microphone to count micrometeorite strikes. Also on board was an experimental solar batterie to power one of the transmitters. Originally, Object D was planned to be the first satellite to be launched (in 1957), but it suffered delays and was replaced by the ‘Simpler satellites’ (PS 1 and PS 2, better known as Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2). It was designated ‘Object D’ – the fifth letter of the Russian alphabet - because it would be the fifth type of payload to be carried on an R-7. (Objects A, B, V, and G were different nuclear warhead containers.) The satellite was finally launched by a modified R-7 ICBM (8A91), but the launcher broke up into pieces 96.5 seconds after liftoff because of resonant frequencies (excessive pogo effect), thus destroying two and a half years' worth of labor. Furtunately, it was replace two weeks later by the second Object D: Sputnik 3.
Source:	Jonathan Space Report's Master List ; Mark Wade’s Encyclopedia Astronautica's 1958 Chronology ; National Space Science Data Center's ; TRW Space Log 1996 (Vol. 32), p. 65 ; Asif Siddiqi, Challenge To Apollo, p. 151, 176 ; Gunter's D-1 #1 & 2 ;

Vanguard TV-5

Spacecraft:	Vanguard 2A X-ray/environmental satellite
Chronologies:	1958 payload #7 ; 1958 4th loss ; 10th spacecraft.
Type:	Earth/space Sciences
SAchievements:	7th U.S. satellite, and 4th failure.
Sponsor:	U.S. NRL / Naval Research Laboratory

Launch:

29 April 1958 at 2h53 UT, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's LC-18A, by a Vanguard.

Orbit:

Fly up to 596 km and 2,414 km away.	USCSP
Apogee: 550 km.	Wade

Destroyed:

29 April 1958.

Mission:

The objective of this Vanguard X-ray satellite was to study solar radiation and to make certain space environment measurements. The spacecraft weight 33 kg (9.8 kg net) and was lost when the Vanguard TV-5’s third stage failed to ignite. The rocket failed due to malfunction of minor components in the firing circuit of its third stage.

Source:

Jonathan Space Report's Master List ; Mark Wade’s Encyclopedia Astronautica's 1958 Chronology ; National Space Science Data Center's VAGT5 ; Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1915-1960, p. 98 ; TRW Space Log 1996 (Vol. 32), p. 65 ; Vanguard, A History (NASA SP-4202) Chapter 12 ; United States Civilian Space Program, 1958-1978, Vol. 1, 1981, p. 1255 ; Gunter's Vanguard (20in Lyman-Alpha) ;

Sputnik 3 / Object D #2

Spacecraft:

D-1 no. 2 / 3-y ISZ (3rd Soviet sputnik)

Chronologies:

1958 payload #8 ; 1958-004B (1958 Delta 2) ; 11th spacecraft ; 8th space object catalogued.

Type:

Earth/space Sciences

Significant
achievements:

•	3rd Soviet satellite put into orbit; first truly scientific satellite (geophysics).
•	Another spectacular for the Soviet Union: orbiting a 1-ton satellite (a hundred time heavier than U.S. satellite).
•	The Soviet Union demonstrated its capability to orbit heavy payloads.
•	Spacecraft transmitted for nearly two years (until its reentry).

Sponsor:

Soviet Union (Korolev's Desing Bureau)

Launch:

15 May 1958 at 7h01 UT, from Baykonur Cosmodrome's LC-1, by an A/"Sputnik". (Formerly: launched by a SL-1 from Tyuratam.)

Orbit:

201 km x 1,878 km x 65.2° x 106 min.	A&A
226 km x 1,881 km x 65.2° x 105.95 min.	ESAM
226 km x 1,881 km x 65.2° x 106.0 min.	SSP
217 km x 1,864 km x 65.2° x 105.8 min.	TRW
217 km x 1,864 km x 65.2° x 106.0 min.	Wade

Decayed:

6 April 1960 (692 days; transmitted up to decay).

Mission:

Historical reports: “The Soviet Union roared back into the satellite race today by launching a new space vehicle that weighs nearly one and one-half tons. TASS described the new satellite as a cone-shaped missile, 1,75 meters in diameter and 3,57 meters long. It weights 1,327 kilograms. More than half of that weight represents various scientific instruments and radio equipment.
     Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev immediately said the orbiting of the large instrument-packed Sputnik III proved again that his country had “outstripped the United States in science and technology.” He compared the size of the United States satellites to oranges alongside the new Soviet satellite. The U.S. “will need very many satellites the size of oranges in order to catch up with the Soviet Union,” said the Soviet Premier as he could not conceal his joy at his country’s success.
      The satellite carries a large number of instruments that are designed to investigate pressure and composition of the Earth’s atmosphere at high altitudes, the concentration of positive ions, the magnitude of electrical charges in the atmosphere and the intensity of the Earth’s electrostatic field, the strength of the Earth’s magnetism, solar radiation, cosmic rays, micrometeorites and temperatures inside and outside the satellite. The announcement did not mention any passengers aboard Sputnik III.” (NYT, May 16, 1958)
     Sputnik III, called a “flying laboratory,” carryied as experiments: atmospheric pressure, ions, and Earth’s electrostatic and magnetic field, micrometeors, etc. Total weight: about 3,175 kg (unofficial), instrumentation: 1,327 kg. Provided data on radiation belts, etc. Down on 6 May 1960. (A&A, 1961) * * * * *      On May 15, 1958, the Soviet Union put up Sputnik 3, and it was by far the most formidable challenge to the U.S. program. It was a 1,327-kilogram orbiting geophysical observatory of considerable sophistication. Unlike the two battery-powered previous Sputnik, this vehicle was equipped with solar cell panels, elaborate louvres for heat control, and an array of instrumentation which matched all the experiments planned for the U.S. IGY series of flights and also those planned for the immediate post-IGY period. Although this ship carried heavy, off-the-shelf conventional electronic equipment such as vacuum tubes, it also contained thousands of solid state devices. It was in effect the early equivalent of the American OGO flights of 1964 on, although with a lower data rate of return. It is to Soviet credit that the ship continued to operate electronically until the moments of its reentry and burning in the atmosphere two years after launch.
     The first three Sputniks were put up by the same original ICBM system. The whole boostor core vehicle was in orbit, with its weight of about 6 metric tons, measuring 28 meters long, slowly tumbling end over end, almost the size of a railway Pullman sleeper. It was this big rocket which was most easily identified on its passage across the night sky by observers in every continent. (SSP 1971-75, 1976) * * * * * Current overview: Sixth satellite put into Earth orbit (3rd Soviet), it replaced the Sputnik losted in April. Sputnik 3 was a 1,327-kg automatic scientific laboratory. It was conically-shaped and was 3.57 meter long. The scientific instrumentation (twelve instruments) provided data on pressure and composition of the upper atmosphere, concentration of charged particles, photons in cosmic rays, heavy nuclei in cosmic rays, magnetic and electrostatic fields, and meteoric particles. The outer radiation belts of the Earth were detected during the flight.
     This spacecraft was an identical backup article or Object D, with the same instrument complement. The Soviet press referred to it as the "Third Artificial Satellite," later retroactively naming it "Sputnik 3".
     Prior to launch, there was reportedly some doubt about the functioning capabilities of the Tral-D data recorder but Korolev, under pressure from Khrushchev to launch the satellite in time to show support for the Italian Communist Party in the Italian elections, opted to launch without verifying the operation of the device in question. During the flight, ground controllers discovered that the data recorder did indeed fail, thus depriving scientists of information during periods when the satellite was not within communications view of ground stations. This had a repercussive effect on preventing scientists from confirming without doubt the existence of a radiation belt around Earth - there was simply no way to prove that the belt was continuous because of gaps in data.
     Despite the serious failure, there were 100,000 telemetric measurements and 40,000 optical observations conducted until communication was lost with the spacecraft on 3 June 1958. The mission provided a substantial amount of scientific and technological data in various disciplines. Object D decayed from orbit on 6 April 1960, leaving behind the record of having been the first advanced scientific observatory launched into space.

Notes 1:

On 25 February 1962, Soviet scientists claimed to have discovered the third radiation belt around the Earth and published such findings two years before the findings of Explorer XII were made public by NASA on 19 January 1962. Academician Blagonravov, Vice President of the International Committee on Space Research, said in an Izvestia interview that the existence of a dense belt with energies of 200 to 20,000 electron volts at a distance of 40,000 to 80,000 km was recorded by Soviet space launchings in 1958 (that is: Sputnik 3). Such findings, he said, were published by Dr. K. Gringauz and associates in the February and April issues of the Soviet Academy of Sciences Proceedings in 1960, and in later publications. Commenting on the view that the three radiation belts really formed a single large pulsating band that might be called a imagnetosphere, Blagonravov agreed that the boundaries might be arbitrary but that the charged particles in each belt had distinctive characteristics and that it would be inexpedient to reject the theory of three belts.

Source:

Jonathan Space Report's Master List ; Mark Wade’s Encyclopedia Astronautica's 1958 Chronology ; National Space Science Data Center's 1958-004B ; Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1915-1960, p. 98, 141 ; Encyclopédie sociétique de l'astronautique mondial, 1971, Annexe 1 ; Congressional Research Service, Soviet Space Program 1971-75, 1976, p. 83, 84, 554 ; TRW Space Log 1996 (Vol. 32), p. 65 ; Asif Siddiqi, Challenge To Apollo, p. 175-6 ; Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1962, p. 22 ; Gunter's D-1 #1 & 2 ; Celestrak's; Satcat=1958 ;

Vanguard SLV-1

Spacecraft:	Vanguard 2B / Lyman Alpha satellite (20-incn Lyman-Alpha #1)
Chronologies:	1958 payload #9 ; 1958 5th loss ; 12th spacecraft.
Type:	Earth/space Sciences
Achievements:	8th U.S. satellite, and 5th failure.
Sponsor:	U.S. NRL / Naval Research Laboratory

Launch:

28 May 1958 at 3h46 UT, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's LC-18A, by a Vanguard.

Orbit:

2,977 km up and 12,070 km away.

USCSP

Destroyed:

28 May 1958.

Mission:

First launching of production Vanguard satellite vehicle (SLV-1) generally successful with exception of second-stage burnout, which prevented achievement of satisfactory orbit. The objective of the Vanguard SLV-1 and SLV-2 satellites was to put into orbit a fully instrumented, 50-cm Lyman-alpha satellite to study Solar radiation and to make certain space environment measurements. The first spacecraft failed to reach orbit as improper 3rd stage trajectory (unknown cause) / Second stage no cut off. Mass: 33 kg (9.8 kg net).

Source:

Jonathan Space Report's Master List ; Mark Wade’s Encyclopedia Astronautica's 1958 Chronology ; National Space Science Data Center's VAGSL1 ; Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1915-1960, p. 98 ; United States Civilian Space Program, 1958-1978, Vol. 1, 1981, p. 1255 ; TRW Space Log 1996 (Vol. 32), p. 65 ; Vanguard, A History (NASA SP-4202) Chapter 12 ; Gunter's Vanguard (20in Lyman-Alpha) ;

Vanguard SLV-2

Spacecraft:	Vanguard 2C / Lyman Alpha satellite (20-incn Lyman-Alpha #2)
Chronologies:	1958 payload #10 ; 1958 6th loss ; 13th spacecraft.
Type:	Earth/space Sciences
Achievements:	9th U.S. satellite, and 6th failure.
Sponsor:	U.S. NRL / Naval Research Laboratory

Launch:	26 June 1958 at 5h01 UT, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's LC-18A, by a Vanguard.
Orbit:	Up to 165 km.
Destroyed:	26 June 1958.
Mission:	Second flight of a production Vanguard satellite (SLV-2). The objective of the Vanguard SLV-1 and SLV-2 satellites was to put into orbit a fully instrumented, 50-cm Lyman-alpha satellite to study Solar radiation and to make certain space environment measurements. However, the second spacecraft was loss following premature seconnd stage cutoff. Mass: 33 kg (9.8 kg net). The launcher demonstrated structural integrity of tankage which withstood pressure exceeding design values.
Source:	Jonathan Space Report's Master List ; Mark Wade’s Encyclopedia Astronautica's 1958 Chronology ; National Space Science Data Center's VAGSL2 ; Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1915-1960, p. 99 ; United States Civilian Space Program, 1958-1978, Vol. 1, 1981, p. 1255 ; TRW Space Log 1996 (Vol. 32), p. 65 ;; Vanguard, A History (NASA SP-4202) Chapter 12 ; Gunter's Vanguard (20in Lyman-Alpha) ;

NOTS 1 / Pilot 1

Spacecraft:

Diagnostic Payload 1 / Pilot no. 1
NOTS stands for Naval Ordnance Test Station.

Chronologies:

1958 payload #11 ; 1958 7th loss ; 14th spacecraft.

Type:

Technology

Achievements:

•	First test flight of a very secretive U.S. technological satellite program. (Even today, about no detail exists on this NOTS program.) All six test flights failed.
•	Test of a very innovative system; small satellites launched from a jet airplane.

Ranks:

1st military spacecraft (1st American) : 10th American spacecraft (1st military satellite).

Sponsor:

U.S. Navy

Launch:	25 July 1958, from a F4D-1 747 airplane deployed from Santa Barbara Channel DZ,, by a NOTS-SLV.
Orbit:	None.
Losted:	25 July 1958.
Mission:	Radio contact with the payload was lost during ascent; il possibly reached orbit (see below). The NOTS/Pilot satellites were originally intended as a military weather platform, on short-notice launches, to monitor weather over a target area. (Expected lifetime: only a few hours, on a 2,250 km × 2,400 km orbit.) These satellites were to carry a very crude infrared line-scanning device to make low-resolution images of the ground. However, they were modified as ‘diagnostic payloads’ to monitor Project Argus’ high-altitude nuclear tests (see note below). (The infrared scanner was finally flown on some early Transit spacecraft.) Pilot satellites were 1.05-kg, 20-cm annular-shaped craft built around the final stage of the launch vehicle (the NOTS 3-incn Spherical Motor). The program is still top secret and no details were published. (Although A&A, 1915-1960, published in 1961, reports: “During 1958: Experimental tests for launching satellites via rocket fired from fighter aircraft conducted by NAVY Project Pilot.”) Apparently all launches failed but some rumours exist that Pilot 1 and Pilot 3 reached orbit. However, this remains very doubtful, even as there were some signals picked up by ground stations - those were probably not from the satellite.
Notes:	The NOTS program was an air-launched satellite system tested shortly after Sputnik. The project competed with the Army's JupiterC, the Air Force Atlas and the civilian Vanguard. It comprized 10 missions: 4 suborbital R&D flights and six "Pilot" orbital tries, all of which ending in failure.
Argus:	ON 27 August 1958, t he first ARPA’s Argus experiment was conducted, in which a small A-bomb was detonated beyond the atmosphere over the South Atlantic. Launched from the rocketship Norton Sound, the initial flash was followed by an auroral luminescence extending upward and downward along the magnetic lines where the burst occurred. Asecond Argus small A-bomb detonation beyond the atmosphere was conducted on 30 August in the South Atlantic. During a 3-week period in August 1958, 19 five-stage Argo E5 sounding rockets were launched in USAF-NACA program to measure radiation caused by Project Argus, rockets reaching 800-km altitude and were launched from Wallops Islands, AMR, and Ramey AFB, Puerto Rico.
Source:	Jonathan Space Report's Master List ; Mark Wade’s Encyclopedia Astronautica NOTS & 1958 Chronology; Gunter's Pilot 1 to 6 ; Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1915-1960, p. 100, 101, 105 ;

Explorer 4

Spacecraft:

Explorer B

Chronologies:

1958 payload #12 ; 1958-005A (1958 Epsilon 1) ; 15th spacecraft ; 9th space object catalogued.

Type:

Earth/space Sciences

Significant
achievements:

•	4th U.S. orbiting of a satellite (in 10 attempts).
•	1st satellite designed to further investigate something discovered by earlier satellites (the Van Allen radiation belts).
•	Yielded valuable data on radiation belts, micrometeorite impacts and temperatures.

Ransk:

14th civilian spacecraft (10th American).

Sponsor:

U.S, DARPA

Launch:

26 July 1958 at 15h01 UT, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's LC-5, by a Jupiter C (RTV 7, Juno I.

Orbit:

262 km x 2,220 km x 50,29° x 110.27 min.	A&A
263 km x 2,213 km x 50,3° x 110.18 min.	ESAN
263 km x 2,213 km x 50,3° x 110.2 min.	USCSP
263 km x 2,213 km x 50,1° x 110.1 min.	TRW
257 km x 3,352 km x 50,2° x 100.90 min.	Wade

Decay:

23 October 1959 (transmitted until 6 October 1958).

Mission:

Historical reports: Explorers III and IV, fired under the direction of ARPA with the Army as executive agent, yielded valuable data on the radiation belts discovered by Explorer I as well as data on micrometeoric impacts (density of cosmic dust) and on internal and external temperatures of the satellite. (USASA, 1959)
     Explorer IV, fourth U.S.-IGY satellite, was successfully launched It carries 2 Geiger-Moeller counters and 2 scintillation counters. Total weight: 17.4 kg, instrumentation: 11.7 kg. Two transmitters with 5 concurrent channels (channels 2 and 5 ceased on 3 September 1958), all transmission ceased on 6 October 1958. Provided data on radiation belts, etc. Down on 23 November 1959. (A&A, 1961)
     On 6 September 1958, the third of the Argus small A-bomb detonations beyond the atmosphere was conducted over the south Atlantic, and Explorer IV instruments recorded and reported to ground stations resultant electrons densities, subsequently reported by James Van Allen. * * * * * Current overview: Seventh satellite put into Earth orbit (4th U.S.), Explorer IV was a 18-kg (8 kg net) satellite which was carrying two Geiger-Mueller counters, two scintillation counters, and internal temperature measurements transmitted by sub-carrier center frequency shift. The spacecraft was a cylindrer instrumented to make the first detailed measurements of charged particles (protons and electrons) trapped in the terrestrial radiation belts. It explored a far greater volume of space as regards latitude and altitude than Explorers I and III. Also collected data on trapped electrons resulting from Argus high-altitude nuclear explosions.
   Explorer 4 weighed 3 kilograms more than its predecessors to accommodate upgraded telemetry equipment and experiments. This was the first satellite designed to further investigate something discovered by earlier satellites, that is, the radiation belts. Because the geiger counters on the earlier Explorers jammed, apparently due to the high intensity of radiation, Explorer 4 carried special equipment for further measurements: a geiger counter with a dynamic range that allowed detection and scaling at 1,500 times the capacity of the counters on Explorers 1 and Explorer 3; a shielded Geiger counter, covered with 1.59 millimeters of lead, to measure the absorption of X-rays and count intensities of higher energy cosmic rays; and two scintillation counters to measure the total amount of energy flow from the radiation (detectors were crystals of cesium iodide glued to the face of photo-multipliers).
    An unexpected tumble motion of the satellite made the interpretation of the detector data very difficult. The low-power transmitter and the plastic scintillator detector failed on 3 September 1958. The two Geiger-Mueller tubes and the cesium iodide crystal detectors continued to operate normally until 19 September 1958. The high-power transmitter ceased sending signals on 5 October 1958. It is believed that exhaustion of the power batteries caused these failures. The spacecraft decayed from orbit after 454 days.

Source:

Jonathan Space Report's Master List ; Mark Wade’s Encyclopedia Astronautica's 1958 Chronology ; National Space Science Data Center's 1958-005A ; United States Aeronautics and Space Activities, 1st Annual Report to Congress, 1959, p. 8-9 ; Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1915-1960, p. 100, 101, 141 ; Encyclopédie sociétique de l'astronautique mondial, 1971, Annexe 1 ; United States Civilian Space Program, 1958-1978, Vol. 1, 1981, p. 722, 1256 ; TRW Space Log 1996 (Vol. 32), p. 65 ; Vanguard: A History's Explorer Flight Summary ; Gunter's Explorer 1 to 5 ; Celestrak's Satcat=1958 ;

NOTS 2 / Pilot 2

Spacecraft:	Diagnostic Payload 2 / Pilot no. 2 NOTS stands for Naval Ordnance Test Station.
Chronologies:	1958 payload #13 ; 1958 8th loss ; 16th spacecraft.
Type:	Technology
Achievements:	Second test flight of a very secretive U.S. technological satellite program (2nd failure).
Sponsor:	U.S. Navy

Launch:	12 August 1958, from a F4D-1 747 airplane deployed from Santa Barbara Channel DZ, by a NOTS-SLV.
Orbit:	None.
Lost:	12 August 1958.
Mission:	Vehicle exploded at ignition. The NOTS/Pilot satellites were originally intended as a military weather platform, on short-notice launches, to monitor weather over a target area. (Expected lifetime: only a few hours, on a 2,250 km × 2,400 km orbit.) These satellites were to carry a very crude infrared line-scanning device to make low-resolution images of the ground. However, they were modified as ‘diagnostic payloads’ to monitor Project Argus’ high-altitude nuclear tests. (The infrared scanner was finally flown on some early Transit spacecraft.) Pilot satellites were 1.05-kg, 20-cm annular-shaped craft built around the final stage of the launch vehicle (the NOTS 3-incn Spherical Motor). The program is still top secret, and no details were published.
Source:	Jonathan Space Report's Master List ; Mark Wade’s Encyclopedia Astronautica NOTS& 1958 Chronology ; Gunter's Pilot 1 to 6 ;

Able 1 / "Pioneer 0"

Spacecraft:

At the time of its launch, the probe did not receive a name, but is now referred to as Pioneer 0 or Able 1. (See also note below on Pioneer naming in Pioneer 1 entry below.)

Chronologies:

1958 payload #14 ; 1958 9th loss ; 17th spacecraft.

Type:

Planetary Probe (Moon)

Achievements:

•	1st planetary/lunar probe - first attempted launch beyond Earth orbit by any country - but failed.
•	It had a very ambitious mission: to go into lunar Moon to photograph and study its surface with a TV camera and instruments during two weeks.

Sponsor:

U.S. Air Force / ARPA (Advanced Research Project Agency)

Launch:

17 August 1958 at 12h18 UT, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's LC-17A, by a Thor-Able.

Orbit:

16 km up.	USCSP
Apogee: 16 km	Wade

Destroyed:

17 August 1958.

Mission:

Historical reports: During 1959, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) authorized three space probes by the Air Force, two by the Army. The mission of the first space probe was to place a 38.5 kg payload - including an electronic scanning device to produce crude images of the far side of the Moon - in the vicinity of the Moon.
The Thor-Able I test vehicle consisted of a standard Thor for the first stage with a liquid-fuel, modified Vanguard second stage, a solid propellant third stage, and a solid propellant terminal or retro-rocket as its fourth stage. This first attempt ended in failure when the rocket exploded 77 seconds after liftoff. (USASA, 1959) * * * * * The first lunar flight of the Air Force Thor-Able launch vehicle rose from Cape Canaveral on August 17 and ended 77 seconds later in a pyrotechnic display above the beach. This "catastrophic failure," the investigative report declared, was caused when a turbo pump bearing seized in the main-stage rocket engine. The embarrassing flight went officially unnamed by the Air Force, though informally it became known as "Pioneer O." (NASA SP-4210, 1977) * * * * * Current overview: As the first-ever lunar attempt, the 37.8-kg (11 kg net) Pioneer 0 had a very ambitious mission: to go into lunar orbit. It carried a TV camera and other instruments as part of the first International Geophysical Year (IGY) science payload. It was also the first attempted launch beyond Earth orbit by any country. The original plan was for the spacecraft to travel for 2.6 days to the Moon, at which time its rocket motor would fire to put it into a 29,000 km lunar orbit, which was to nominally last for about two weeks. Pioneer 0 was 74 cm in diameter and 76 cm long. It included a 11-kg solid-propellant injection rocket motor and eight small low-thrust solid propellant adjustment rockets. The spacecraft shell was composed of laminated plastic and was painted with a pattern of dark and light stripes to help regulate temperature. The scientific instrument package had a mass of 11.3 kg and consisted of an image scanning infrared television system to study the Moon's surface, a diaphragm/microphone assembly to detect micrometeorites, a magnetometer, and temperature-variable resistors to record spacecraft internal conditions. Unfortunately, the spacecraft was destroyed by an explosion of the the Thor's first stage 77 seconds after launch at 16 kilometres altitude, and felt 16 km downrange into the Atlantic. Failure was suspected to be due to a ruptured fuel or oxygen line. Erratic telemetry signals were received from the probe and upper stages for 123 seconds after the explosion.

Notes:

At this early stage of the U.S. space program, responsibility for various projects was still uncertain, so the first three Pioneers (0, I and II) were under Air Force sponsorship, while the next two (III and IV) were Army spacecraft, and the last three were managed by the newly created NASA. Only one of these first Pioneer, launched during 1958-1960, accomplished its mission (Pioneer IV), the others suffering various launch vehicle failures.

Source:

Jonathan Space Report's Master List ; National Space Science Data Center's ABLE1 ; Mark Wade’s Encyclopedia Astronautica's 1958 Chronology ; United States Aeronautics and Space Activities, 1st Annual Report to Congress, 1959, p. 10-1 ; Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1915-1960, p. 100 ; Lunar Impact: A History of Project Ranger, 1977, Chapter 1 ; United States Civilian Space Program, 1958-1978, Vol. 1, 1981, p. 783, 784, 1256 ; TRW Space Log 1996 (Vol. 32), p. 65 ; A. Siddiqi, SP-2002-4524, p. 17 ; Gunter's Pioneer 0, 1, 2 ;

NOTS 3 / Pilot 3

Spacecraft:	Diagnostic Payload 3 / Pilot no. 3 NOTS stands for Naval Ordnance Test Station.
Chronologies:	1958 payload #15 ; 1958 10th loss ; 18th spacecraft.
Type:	Technology
Achievements:	Third test flight of a very secretive U.S. technological satellite program (3rd failure).
Sponsor:	U.S. Navy

Launch:	22 August 1958, from a F4D-1 747 airplane deployed from Santa Barbara Channel DZ, by a NOTS-SLV.
Orbit:	None.
Lost:	22 August 1958.
Mission:	Radio contact lost; possibly reached orbit. The NOTS/Pilot satellites were originally intended as a military weather platform, on short-notice launches, to monitor weather over a target area. (Expected lifetime: only a few hours, on a 2,250 km × 2,400 km orbit.) These satellites were to carry a very crude infrared line-scanning device to make low-resolution images of the ground. However, they were modified as ‘diagnostic payloads’ to monitor Project Argus’ high-altitude nuclear tests. (The infrared scanner was finally flown on some early Transit spacecraft.) Pilot satellites were 1.05-kg, 20-cm annular-shaped craft built around the final stage of the launch vehicle (the NOTS 3-incn Spherical Motor). The program is still top secret, and no details were published. Apparently all launches failed but some rumours exist that Pilot 1 and Pilot 3 reached orbit. However, this remains very doubtful, even as there were some signals picked up by ground stations, but those were probably not from the satellite.
Source:	Jonathan Space Report's Master List ; Mark Wade’s Encyclopedia Astronautica NOTS & 1958 Chronology ; Gunter's Pilot 1 to 6 ;

Explorer 5

Spacecraft:
Chronologies:	1958 payload #16 ; 1958 11th loss ; 19th spacecraft.
Type:	Earth/space Sciences
Achievements:	11th U.S. attempt to orbit a satellite (7th failure).
Sponsor:	U.S. ARPA

Launch:	24 August 1958 at 6h17 UT, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's LC-5, by a Jupiter C.
Orbit:	None.
Destroyed:	24 August 1958.
Mission:	Historical reports: Explorer V successfully launched [that is: lift-off] by ABMA-JPL Jupiter-C and all stages fired, but orbit not achieved because of collision between parts of booster and instrument compartment. * * * * * Current overview: The last of the three Army Explorers, Explorer V, with a mass of 17.24 kg (12 kg net), is a duplicate of Explorer IV. It failed to orbit at the first-stage separation, this stage collided with upper stages. Second Stage ignited in wrong direction. Impacted after 659 seconds.
Source:	Jonathan Space Report's Master List ; Mark Wade’s Encyclopedia Astronautica's 1958 Chronology ; National Space Science Data Center's EXPLR5 ; Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1915-1960, p. 100 ; United States Civilian Space Program, 1958-1978, Vol. 1, 1981, p. 722, 1256 ; TRW Space Log 1996 (Vol. 32), p. 65 ; Vanguard: A History's Explorer Flight Summary ; Gunter's Explorer 1 to 5 ;

NOTS 4 / Pilot 4

Spacecraft:	Radiation Payload 1 / Pilot no. 4 NOTS stands for Naval Ordnance Test Station.
Chronologies:	1958 payload #17 ; 1958 12th loss ; 20th spacecraft.
Type:	Technology
Achievements:	Rourth test flight of a very secretive U.S. technological satellite program (4th failure).
Sponsor:	U.S. Navy

Launch:	25 August 1958, from a F4D-1 747 airplane deployed from Santa Barbara Channel DZ, by a NOTS-SLV.
Orbit:	None.
Lost:	25 August 1958
Mission:	Vehicle exploded after 0.75 second. The NOTS/Pilot satellites were originally intended as a military weather platform, on short-notice launches, to monitor weather over a target area. (Expected lifetime: only a few hours, on a 2,250 km × 2,400 km orbit.) These satellites were to carry a very crude infrared line-scanning device to make low-resolution images of the ground. However, they were modified as ‘diagnostic payloads’ to monitor Project Argus’ high-altitude nuclear tests. (The infrared scanner was finally flown on some early Transit spacecraft.) Pilot satellites were 1.05-kg, 20-cm annular-shaped craft built around the final stage of the launch vehicle (the NOTS 3-incn Spherical Motor). The program is still top secret, and no details were published.
Source:	Jonathan Space Report's Master List ; Mark Wade’s Encyclopedia Astronautica NOTS & 1958 Chronology ; Gunter's Pilot 1 to 6 ;

NOTS 5 / Pilot 5

Spacecraft:	Radiation Payload 2 / Pilot no. 5 NOTS stands for Naval Ordnance Test Station.
Chronologies:	1958 payload #18 ; 1958 13th loss ; 21st spacecraft.
Type:	Technology
Achievements:	Fifth test flight of a very secretive U.S. technological satellite program (5th failure).
Sponsor:	U.S. Navy

Launch:	26 August 1958, from a F4D-1 747 airplane deployed from Santa Barbara Channel DZ, by a NOTS-SLV.
Orbit:	None.
Lost:	26 August 1958.
Mission:	Stage failed to ignite, vehicle fell into Pacific. The NOTS/Pilot satellites were originally intended as a military weather platform, on short-notice launches, to monitor weather over a target area. (Expected lifetime: only a few hours, on a 2,250 km × 2,400 km orbit.) These satellites were to carry a very crude infrared line-scanning device to make low-resolution images of the ground. However, they were modified as ‘diagnostic payloads’ to monitor Project Argus’ high-altitude nuclear tests. (The infrared scanner was finally flown on some early Transit spacecraft.) Pilot satellites were 1.05-kg, 20-cm annular-shaped craft built around the final stage of the launch vehicle (the NOTS 3-incn Spherical Motor). The program is still top secret, and no details were published.
Source:	Jonathan Space Report's Master List ; Mark Wade’s Encyclopedia Astronautica NOTS & 1958 Chronology; Gunter's Pilot 1 to 6 ;

NOTS 6 / Pilot 6

Spacecraft:	Radiation Payload 3 / Pilot no. 6 NOTS stands for Naval Ordnance Test Station.
Chronologies:	1958 payload #19 ; 1958 14th loss ; 22nd spacecraft.
Type:	Technology
Achievements:	Sixth test flight of a very secretive U.S. technological satellite program (6th failure).
Sponsor:	U.S. Navy

Launch:	28 August 1958, from a F4D-1 747 airplane deployed from Santa Barbara Channel DZ, by a NOTS-SLV.
Orbit:	None.
Lost:	28 August 1958.
Mission:	One first stage motor failed to ignite, causing structural failure. The NOTS/Pilot satellites were originally intended as a military weather platform, on short-notice launches, to monitor weather over a target area. (Expected lifetime: only a few hours, on a 2,250 km × 2,400 km orbit.) These satellites were to carry a very crude infrared line-scanning device to make low-resolution images of the ground. However, they were modified as ‘diagnostic payloads’ to monitor Project Argus’ high-altitude nuclear tests. (The infrared scanner was finally flown on some early Transit spacecraft.) Pilot satellites were 1.05-kg, 20-cm annular-shaped craft built around the final stage of the launch vehicle (the NOTS 3-incn Spherical Motor). The program is still top secret, and no details were published.
Source:	Jonathan Space Report's Master List ; Mark Wade’s Encyclopedia Astronautica NOTS & 1958 Chronology; Gunter's Pilot 1 to 6 ;

"Luna" / Ye-1 #1

Spacecraft:

Ye-1 no. 1 (E-1 no. 1)

Chronologies:

1958 payload #20 ; 1958 15th loss ; 23rd spacecraft.

Type:

Planetary Probe (Moon)

Significant
achievements:

•	5th Soviet space mission, their first lunar attempt and 2nd failure (kept secret for decades).
•	If the goal of U.S. lunar attempts was to orbit the Moon, the Soviet were trying to reach its surface (impacting). Neither succeeded in all their 1958 attempts.
•	A 360-kg spacecraft, compared to the U.S. 38-kg Pioneer.
•	According to some reports, had Pioneer 0 been successfully launched, the Soviets would have made their first lunar attempt the following day and, since their probe would has flown a shorter trajectory, it would had reached the Moon prior to the U.S. probe. The ‘Space Race’ was on! (But unknown at the time.)

Sponsor:

Soviet Union (Korolev's Design Bureau)

Launch:	23 September 1958 at 9h03 UT, from Baykonur Cosmodrome's LC-1, by an A-1/"Vostok". (Formerly: launched by a SL-3 from Tyuratam.)
Orbit:	None.
Destroyed:	23 September 1958.
Mission:	Historical reports: Second lunar attempt (1st Soviet), but even a reference report like the Soviet Space Program 1971-75, published in 1976, had no knowledge of this failure. * * * * * Current overview: This early Luna launch was believed to be an attempt to reach the Moon and impact on its surface - the first attempt to reach the Moon surface. A Ye-1 probe was a simple craft: a pressurized spherical object made from aluminum-magnesium alloy, approximately the size of the first Sputnik, that carried five scientific instruments. The goals of the mission were to study the gas component of interplanetary matter (using the proton traps), meteoric particles and photons in cosmic radiation (using the piezoelectric detectors), the magnetic fields of the Moon and Earth (using the magnetometer), variations in cosmic ray intensity, and heavy nuclei in primary cosmic radiation. The probe (on its upper stage) also carried one kilogram of natrium to create an artificial comet on the outbound trajectory that could be photographed from Earth. Spacecraft Mass: ~360 kg (with upper stage). During the launch, the booster developed longitudinal resonant vibrations on the strap-on boosters of the launch vehicle. The rocket eventually disintegrated at T+93 seconds, destroying its payload. According to Bart Hendrickx, this first Luna launch attempt take place a month after Pioneer 0 failure. But, had Pioneer 0 been successfully launched, the Russians would have made their first attempt the following day. When Korolyov learned of U.S. plans to launch the first Pioneer on 17 August, he moved his first Luna launch to the day after. Since the Soviet probe would fly a shorter trajectory, it would reach the Moon prior to Pioneer. When the Pioneer launch failed, Korolyov decided to play it safe and roll the rocket back to the assembly building. There had been problems with the R-7 main engines as well as other malfunctions during pre-launch preparations. The R-7 was returned to the pad in mid-September but failed 87 seconds into flight.
Origins:	The Soviet government approved a modest plan for initial exploration of the Moon in March 1958. Engineers conceived of four initial probes: the Ye-1 (for lunar impact), Ye-2 (to photograph the far side of the Moon), Ye-3 (to photograph the far side of the Moon) and Ye-4 (for lunar impact with a nuclear explosion).
Source:	Jonathan Space Report's Master List ; Mark Wade’s Encyclopedia Astronautica's 1958 Chronology ; TRW Space Log 1996 (Vol. 32), p. 65 ; A. Siddiqi, SP-2002-4524, p. 17-8 ; Bart Hendrickx, "Friends and Partners in Space" newgroups, 19 August 1998 ; Gunter's Luna Ye-1 ;

Vanguard SLV-3

Spacecraft:

Vanguard 2D / Cloud cover satellite

Chronologies:

1958 payload #21 ; 1958 16th loss ; 24th spacecraft.

Type:

Earth/space Sciences (Meteorology)

Achievements:

•	12th U.S. attempt to orbit a satellite (8th failure).
•	1st attempt to launch a ‘meteorological’ (cloud observation) satellite.

Sponsor:

U.S. NRL / Naval Research Laboratory

Launch:	26 September 1958 at 15h38 UT, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's LC-18A, by a Vanguard.
Orbit:	Up to 426 km.
Destroyed:	26 September 1958.
Mission:	Vanguard SLV-3 carried a 33-kg (10 kg net) satellite designed to measure cloud-cover distribution over the daylight portion of its orbit. It was a magnesium sphere, 50.8 cm in diameter, containing two optical telescopes with two photocells. The sphere was internally gold-plated and externally covered with an aluminum deposit coated with silicon oxide of sufficient thickness to provide thermal control for the instrumentation. Unfortunately, the satellite failed to reach orbit because insufficient second stage thrust (for unknown cause). The SLV-3 launcher reached 428 km altitude and was destroyed 14,800 km downrange over Central Africa on reentry into the atmosphere. However, the satellite may have nearly attain orbit.
Source:	Jonathan Space Report's Master List ; Mark Wade’s Encyclopedia Astronautica's 1958 Chronology ; National Space Science Data Center's VAGSL3 ; Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1915-1960, p. 102 ; United States Civilian Space Program, 1958-1978, Vol. 1, 1981, p. 1256 ; TRW Space Log 1996 (Vol. 32), p. 65 ; Vanguard, A History (NASA SP-4202) Chapter 12 ; Gunter's Vanguard (20in Cloud Cover) ;

Able 2 / Pioneer 1

Spacecraft:

This mission, Able 2, has been retroactively known as Pioneer 1.

Chronologies:

1958 payload #22 ; 1958-006A (1958 Eta 1) ; 25th spacecraft ; 110th space object catalogued.

Type:

Planetary Probe (Moon)

Significant
achievements:

•	2nd U.S. attempt to launch a lunar orbiter.
•	Failed to reach the Moon, but traveled a record distance - nearly one-third the Earth-Moon distance -, making first measurements in deep space. For this reason, the mission is qualified as a significant success.
•	1st spacecraft under NASA direction (which began operations ten days earlier).

Sponsor:

NASA & U.S. Air Force

Launch:

11 October 1958 at 8h42 UT, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's LC-17A, by a Thor Able.

Orbit:

Attained altitude of 113,750 km.	A&A
Ballistic trajectory, up to 113,854 km from Earth. (Set distance record, but failed to reach Moon.)	TRW
Apogee: 114,600 km.	ESAM
Up to 113,728 km.	USCSP

Decayed:

13 October 1958 at 3h46 UT.

Mission:

Historical reports: The second Able attempt, with a payload of more advanced instrumentation than the first one, had essentially the same mission: to place a payload in the vicinity of the Moon. It was deemed a qualified success despite the fact that it did not reach the Moon, since it traveled 114,700 km into space, about 30 times farther than any man-made device had gone until that time. An error of 3.5 degrees in the first stage of the trajectory prevented the rocket from attaining the velocity needed to reach the Moon. After a 43-hour flight, the 37.5 kg probe re-entered the Earth's atmosphere and burned. (USASA, 1959)
     Pioneer I, first U.S.-IGY space probe under direction of NASA and with the AFBMD as executive agent, traveled 113,755 km before returning to Earth, determined radial extend of great radiation belt, first observations of Earth’s and interplanetary magnetic field, and first measurements of micrometeorite density in interplanetary space.
     Pioneer I experiments: radiation in space measurements, magnetic field of Earth, density of micrometeors, internal temperatures, electronic scanner. Total weight: 38.3 kg, including 19.8 kg vernier and retro-roekets, and 18 kg of instrumentation. Attained altitude [record altitude]of 113,750 km before reentering atmosphere over South Pacific 43 hours and 17½ minutes. Determined: radial extent of radiation bands (first observation that radiation is a band), total ionizing flux, first observation of hydromagntic oscillation of Earth’s magnetic field, discovery of departure of magnetic field from predictions, first determinations of density of micrometeors in space, and first measurements of interplanetary magnetic field. * * * * * The Air Force launched its second Thor-Able lunar flight on October 11, 1958. This time a guidance system error caused an early shutdown of the second-stage engine. Upon completion of burning of the third-stage engine, the velocity attained was less than that required to escape the Earth's gravity. The spacecraft separated properly from its third-stage rocket and continued to ascend to an altitude of 115,000 kilometers, about one-third the distance to the moon, before falling back to be incinerated in the Earth's upper atmosphere.
     This second flight, promptly christened Pioneer I, though of course precluding photography of the Moon, did yield good scientific data from the magnetometer and micrometeoroid detector. The ionization chamber measuring radiation intensity developed a leak; much of its radiation information, at first unintelligible, was subsequently unscrambled and recovered. (NASA SP-4210, 1977) * * * * * Current overview: Third lunar attempt (second U.S.), the second and most successful of the three Able space probes. The 37.8-kg (11 kg net) spacecraft was similar to Able 1. It was intended to study the ionizing radiation, cosmic rays, magnetic fields and micrometeorites in the vicinity of the Earth and in lunar orbit.
     The space probe did not reached the Moon because, at the end of its launch, the Thor second stage shut down 10 seconds early due to incorrect information from an accelerometer measuring velocity. The launch vehicle thus imparted insufficient velocity for the probe to escape Earth’s gravity. It was then hoped that firing the lunar orbital motor would put the probe into a a high-altitude Earth orbit (32,200 x 128,700 km), but the ignition failed due to low temperatures of the batteries. Pioneer-1 flew up to a height of 113,854 km, a third of the distance of the Moon - setting a long-distance record -, and fell back toward Earth. It did verified the extent of the Van Allen belts and returning other useful data. The real-time transmission was obtained for about 75% of the flight and the spacecraft ended transmission when it re-entered Earth's atmosphere after 43 hours of flight on 13 October 1958 at 3h46 UT over the South Pacific.
    This mission was a partial failure (since it didn’t reach the Moon), but it revealed important scientific observations, showing the radiation surrounding Earth was in the form of bands and measuring the extent of the bands, mapping the total ionizing flux, making the first observations of hydromagnetic oscillations of the magnetic field, and taking the first measurements of the density of micrometeorites and the interplanetary magnetic field.

Notes:

October 1, 1957 marks the first official day of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). By Executive order of the President, DOD responsibilities for the remaining U.S.-IGY satellite and space probe projects were transferred to NASA; included were Project Vanguard and the four lunar probes and three satellites IGY projects remaining, which had previously been assigned by ARPA to AFBMD and ABMA.
Consequently, before the launch of the second U.S. lunar probe, the whole program was transferred to NASA, with USAF and Army acting as simple consultants. NASA named the probes Pioneer 1 (thus, the first one, launched two months earlier, became ‘Pioneer 0’. Pioneer 1 (or Able-2) was launched just ten days after NASAs foundation. The probe was developed by Space Technology Laboratories, Inc. and was launched for NASA by the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division (AFBMD).
At this early stage of the U.S. space program, responsibility for various projects was still uncertain, so the first three Pioneers (0, I and II) were under Air Force sponsorship, while the next two (III and IV) were Army spacecraft, and the last three were managed by the newly created NASA. Only one of these first Pioneer, launched during 1958-1960, accomplished its mission (Pioneer IV), the others suffering various launch vehicle failures.

Program origins:

Shortly after the launch of Sputnik 1, William H. Pickering, the Director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, advanced a novel idea; he wanted the United States to meet the Russian space challenge by sending a spacecraft to the Moon. Using the technology available, the United States could launch a simple, spin stabilized vehicle, similar to the Explorer satellite in design, on reasonably short notice, possibly as early as June 1958. Three weeks after the launch of Sputnik 1, Pickering had ready a JPL moon flight proposal. Designated "Project Red Socks," the proposal declared it "imperative" for the nation to "regain its stature in the eyes of the world by producing a significant technological advance over the Soviet Union" in rocketry, and space flight.
     In early 1958, the newly-created ARPA agency, directed by Roy Johnson, was eager "to surpass the Soviet Union in any way possible and an unmanned lunar program appeared to be the most promising approach to "beat the Russians" in space
     With the President Eisenhower's approval, on 27 March 1958, Secretary of Defense Neil McElroy announced that ARPA's space program would advance space flight technology and "determine our capability of exploring space in the vicinity of the Moon, to obtain useful data concerning the moon, and to provide a close look at the Moon." The ARPA lunar program was generally known as the "Pioneer program,"
     Conducted as part of the United States contribution to the International Geophysical Year, the lunar project would consist of three Air Force launches using modified Thor ballistic missiles with liquid-propellant Vanguard upper stages, followed by two Army launches using modified Jupiter-C missiles and JPL solid-propellant upper stages. JPL was to design the Army's lunar probe and arrange for the necessary instrumentation and tracking. ARPA directed the Air Force to launch its lunar probes "as soon as possible consistent with the requirement that a minimal amount of useful data concerning the Moon be obtained."
     The lunar probe, 74 centimeters in diameter and 46 centimeters long, carried 17.5 kilograms of scientific instruments, battery power, transmitter and antenna, and a retrorocket system designed to slow the vehicle into lunar orbit. In keeping with the original ARPA requirements, this spacecraft also supported a small facsimile television system: (NASA SP-4210)

Pioneer name:

"Pioneer" was chosen as the name for the first U.S. space probe: Pioneer 1 as well as for the following series of lunar and deep space probes. The Pioneer series had been initiated for the International Geophysical Year by the Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), which assigned execution variously to the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division (AFBMD) and to the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA).
Credit for naming the first probe has been attributed to Stephen A. Saliga, who had been assigned to the Air Force Orientation Group, Wright-Patterson AFB, as chief designer of Air Force exhibits. While he was at a briefing, the spacecraft was described to him as a "lunar-orbiting vehicle with an infrared scanning device." Saliga thought the title too long and lacked theme for an exhibit design. He suggested "Pioneer" as the name of the probe since "the Army had already launched and orbited the Explorer satellite and their Public Information Office was identifying the Army as 'Pioneers in Space,'" and by adopting the name the Air Force would "make a 'quantum jump' as to who really [were] the 'Pioneers in space.'"

Source:

Jonathan Space Report's Master List ; Mark Wade’s Encyclopedia Astronautica's 1958 Chronology ; National Space Science Data Center's 1958-007A ; United States Aeronautics and Space Activities, 1st Annual Report to Congress, 1959, p. 11 ; Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1915-1960, p. 102, 142 ; Encyclopédie sociétique de l'astronautique mondial, 1971, Annexe 1 ; Lunar Impact: A History of Project Ranger, 1977, Chapter 1 ; United States Civilian Space Program, 1958-1978, Vol. 1, 1981, p. 783, 784, 1256 ; TRW Space Log 1996 (Vol. 32), p. 66 ; A. Siddiqi, SP-2002-4524, p. 18 ; Origins of NASA Names (NASA SP-4402) Chapter 3 p. 88-89 ; Gunter's Pioneer 0, 1, 2 ; Celestrak's Satcat=1958 ;

"Luna" / Ye-1 #2

Spacecraft:	Ye-1 no. 2 (E-1 no. 2)
Chronologies:	1958 payload #23 ; 1958 17th loss ; 26th spacecraft.
Type:	Planetary Probe (Moon)
Achievements:	2nd Soviet attempt to reach the Moon; a failure kept secret for decades .
Sponsor:	Soviet Union (Korolev's Design Bureau)

Launch:	11 October 1958 at 23h42 UT, from Baykonur Cosmodrome's LC-1, by an A-1/"Vostok". (Formerly: launched by a SL-3 from Tyuratam.)
Orbit:	None.
Destroyed:	11 October 1958.
Mission:	Historical reports: Fourth lunar attempt (2nd Soviet), but even a reference report like the Soviet Space Program 1971-75, published in 1976, had no knowledge of this failure. * * * * * Current overview: This early Luna launch was believed to be an attempt to reach the Moon and impact on its surface. The second attempt to impact the Moon (after Luna Ye-1 #1) failed when, again, the probe never left Earth’s atmosphere. The launch vehicle exploded after 104 seconds due to longitudinal resonant vibrations in the strap-on boosters. (Spacecraft Mass: ~360 kg (with upper stage).)
Note:	This mission was launched a few hours after the Pioneer 1 mission. Because Luna was on a faster trajectory, it would have reached the Moon first.
Source:	Jonathan Space Report's Master List ; Mark Wade’s Encyclopedia Astronautica's 1958 Chronology ; TRW Space Log 1996 (Vol. 32), p. 66 ; A. Siddiqi, SP-2002-4524, p. 18 ; Gunter's ; Celestrak's Luna Ye-1 ;

Beacon 1

Spacecraft:

Chronologies:

1958 payload #24 ; 1958 18th loss ; 27th spacecraft.

Type:

Earth/space Sciences

Achievements:

•	13th U.S. attempt to orbit a satellite (9th failure).
•	1st Earth satellite launched for NASA (2nd NASA mission).
•	1st inflatable (balloon) satellite launch attempt, to study atmospheric density.
•	It should have been the first U.S. satellite to be visible to the naked eye.

Sponsor:

NASA & U.S. Army

Launch:	23 October 1958 at 3h21 UT, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's LC-5, by a Jupiter C (Juno I).
Orbit:	None.
Destroyed:	23 October 1958.
Mission:	Historical reports: NASA, with the Army as executive agent, attempted to place in orbit an inflatable satellite, 3.7 metres in diameter and made of highly reflective aluminum foil and micro-thin plastic film. The experiment was designed to produce data on atmospheric density at altitudes up to 650 km. The second stage of the Jupiter-C launching vehicle did not ignite and the experiment was not completed. NASA, which designed and developed the inflatable sphere, plans to launch a 30-metre inflatable satellite and possibly another 3.7 metre inflatable satellite. (USASA, 1959) * * * * * Current overview: Beacon 1 was a 32-kg (8 kg net) thin plastic sphere, 3,6-meter in diameter after inflation. It should have been the first U.S. satellite to be visible to the naked eye and its mission was to study atmospheric density at various altitude. Beacon 1 was also to serve as a radar target. The mission failed when the rocket's upper stages and the payload separated prior to first-stage burnout, thus the mission was a failure. Rotational spin vibrations of the cluster caused the payload to drop off at 112 seconds and structural failure after 149 seconds. Impacted at 526 seconds
Notes:	“On October 23, 1958 and August 14, 1959, NASA launched satellites designated Beacon 1 and 2 respectively, for ionospheric research using a small radio beacon. Upper stage malfunctions of the launch vehicles used resulted in neither satellite reaching orbit.” End of the program!
Source:	Jonathan Space Report's Master List ; Mark Wade’s Encyclopedia Astronautica ; National Space Science Data Center's BEAC1 ; United States Aeronautics and Space Activities, 1st Annual Report to Congress, 1959, p. 12 ; Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1915-1960, p. 103 ; United States Civilian Space Program, 1958-1978, Vol. 1, 1981, p. 740, 1256 ; TRW Space Log 1996 (Vol. 32), p. 66 ; Vanguard: A History's Explorer Flight Summary ; Gunter's Beacon 1, 2 ;

Able 3 / Pioneer 2

Spacecraft:

Chronologies:

1958 payload #25 ; 1958 19th loss ; 28th spacecraft.

Type:

Planetary Probe (Moon)

Achievements:

•	3rd U.S. lunar orbiter; only flew 1,500 km before falling back to Earth.
•	3rd NASA space mission.

Sponsor:

NASA & U.S. Air Force

Launch:

8 November 1958 at 7h30 UT, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's LC-17A, by a Thor Able.

Orbit:

Attained altitude of 1,550 km.	A&A
1,550 km up.	USCSP
Apogee: 1,550 km	Wade

Decayed:

8 November 1958.

Mission:

Historical reports: Pioneer II, was the second U.S.-IGY space probe under direction of NASA with Air Force as executive agent. Unseparated third and fourth stages reached an altitude of about 1,500 km and flow some 12,000 km before burning out.
Pioneer II experiments: radiation, cosmic ray flux; magnetic fields of Earth and Moon, etc. Total weight: 39.2 kg, instrumentation: 15.6 kg. Attainted altitude of 1,550 km before third stage failed to ignite. Determined: radial extent of radiation bands (first observation that radiation is a band), total ionizing flux, first observation of hydromagnetic oscillation of Earth’s magnetic field; discovery of departure of magnetic field from predictions, first determinations of density of micrometeors in space; first measurements of interplanetary magnetic field. * * * * * The last flight in the Air Force series, Pioneer 2, followed on November 8. The third-stage engine failed to ignite, and the vehicle rose only 1,550 kilometers before failing back to Earth. It returned no significant experimental data. (NASA SP-4210, 1977) * * * * * Current overview: Fifth lunar attempt (3rd U.S.), this 39.1-kg (15 kg net) lunar probe was nearly identical to Pioneer 0. It included a new TV scanner and a new type of battery, as well as a new cosmic-ray telescope to study the Cherenkov Effect. It was the last of the three project Able intended to orbit the Moon. It was developed by USAF's Space Technology Laboratories, Inc. and launched for NASA by the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division (AFBMD). Also for this third Air Force launch of a lunar orbiter, engineers introduced a number of changes to the Thor-Able launcher. But, like its predecessors, Pioneer 2 never reached its target. A signal from the ground shut down the Thor launch vehicle’s second stage 2 earlier than planned. Additionally, when the third-stage engine separated, it failed to fire. As a result, the probe burned up over Africa only 45 minutes after launch. (Investigators concluded that the third-stage engine had failed to fire because of a broken wire.) However, during its brief mission, the lunar probe reached an altitude of 1,550 kilometers and sent back data which suggested that Earth’s equatorial region had higher flux and energy levels than previously thought. The information also indicated that micrometeoroid density was higher near Earth than in space.

Notes:

Source:

Jonathan Space Report's Master List ; Mark Wade’s Encyclopedia Astronautica's 1958 Chronology ; National Space Science Data Center's PION2 ; United States Aeronautics and Space Activities, 1st Annual Report to Congress, 1959, p. 11 ; Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1915-1960, p. 103, 142 ; Lunar Impact: A History of Project Ranger, 1977, Chapter 1 ; United States Civilian Space Program, 1958-1978, Vol. 1, 1981, p. 783, 784, 1256 ; TRW Space Log 1996 (Vol. 32), p. 66 ; A. Siddiqi, SP-2002-4524, p. 18-9 ; Origins of NASA Names (NASA SP-4402) Chapter 3 p. 88-89 ; Celestrak's ; Gunter's Pioneer 0, 1, 2 ;

"Luna" / Ye-1 #3

Spacecraft:	Ye-1 no. 3 (E-1 no. 3)
Chronologies:	1958 payload #26 ; 1958 20th loss ; 29th spacecraft.
Type:	Planetary Probe (Moon)
Achievements:	3rd Soviet attempt to reach the Moon (3rd failure, kept secret).
Sponsor:	Soviet Union (Korolev's Design Bureau)

Launch:	4 December 1958 at 18h19 UT, from Baykonur Cosmodrome's LC-1, by an A-1/"Vostok". (Formerly: launched by a SL-3 from Tyuratam.)
Orbit:	None.
Mission:	Historical reports: Sixth lunar attempt (3rd Soviet), but even a reference report like the Soviet Space Program 1971-75, published in 1976, had no knowledge of this failure. * * * * * Current overview: This mission was the third failure in a row in Soviet attempts to send a Ye-1 lunar impact probe to the Moon. The thrust level of the core engine of the R-7 booster dropped abruptly at 245 seconds into the flight, leading eventually to premature engine cutoff. The payload never reached escape velocity. (Spacecraft Mass: ~360 kg (with upper stage).
Source:	Jonathan Space Report's Master List ; Mark Wade’s Encyclopedia Astronautica's 1958 Chronology ; TRW Space Log 1996 (Vol. 32), p. 66 ; A. Siddiqi, SP-2002-4524, p. 19 ; Gunter's ; Celestrak's Luna Ye-1 ;

Pioneer 3

Spacecraft:

Chronologies:

1958 payload #27 ; 1958-07A (1958 Theta 1) ; 30th spacecraft. 110th space object catalogued.

Type:

Planetary Probe (Moon)

Significant
achievements:

•	4th U.S. lunar probe, failed to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to become the first spacecraft placed into Solar orbit (as will do Lunik I a month later).
•	Made a surprising discovery: a second radiation belt around Earth.

Sponsor:

NASA & AMBA

Launch:

6 December 1958 at 5h45 UT, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's LC-5, by a Juno II.

Orbit:

Attained altitude of 105,520 km.	A&A
Ballistic trajectory up to 102,333 km	TRW
Apogee: 102.320 km	ESAM
102,319 km up.	USCSP

Dacayed:

7 December 1958 at 16h51 UT.

Mission:

Historical reports: Juno II, a modified Jupiter with several solid-fuel upper stages, launched the 5.9-kg Pioneer III instrument package into space. The fuel in the first stage cut off 3.7 seconds too soon, robbing the vehicle of its necessary escape speed. As a result, the probe failed to reach the vicinity of the Moon and pass on to a possible orbit around the Sun. It did, however, fly 102.300 into space and its telemetered measurements yielded valuable radiation data. The mission was thus considered a qualified success. (USASA, 1959)
     Pioneer III was the third U.S.-IGY space probe, the second under direction of NASA and with the Army as executive agent. Its primary mission, to place the scientific payload in the vicinity of the Moon, was not accomplished, although an altitude of 102,300 km was achieved and it discovered that radiation belt was composed of at least two bands.
     Pioneer III experiments: radiation measurements. Total weight, including instrumentation: 5.87 kg. Attained altitude of 105,520 km, and 38,500 km/h velocity, before reentering atmosphere over French Equatorial Africa, after 38 hours and 6 minutes. Discovered second radiation belt around the Earth. (A&A, 1961) * * * * * While the Air Force lunar flights were underway, JPL completed design of the Army's lunar probe. The JPL design called for a cone-shaped, fiberglass instrument package, 51 centimeters long and 25.5 centimeters in diameter at its base. The scientific experiment consisted of a small camera weighing 1.5 kilograms, capable of photographing the moon. The lunar image on 35-millimeter film was to be developed by a wet process, scanned by optical means, transmitted and reconstructed by facsimile methods at a ground receiving station. Snapped at closest approach, 24,000 kilometers from the Moon's surface, the picture would provide a resolution of 32 kilometers.
     On December 6, 1958, the Army launched the first of its lunar probes, Pioneer 3, on a trajectory that was supposed to carry it past the Moon into solar orbit. This probe did not attain escape velocity because the first-stage propulsion system ceased ignition prematurely. Aloft for 38 hours, it ascended 101,000 kilometers before falling back to Earth.
     Nevertheless, scientists acquired valuable information from Van Allen's two Geiger-Muller tubes. These data revealed the existence of two primary bands, or shells, of high-intensity radiation about the Earth at approximately 4,800 and 16,000 kilometers altitude with radiation intensity near the Earth progressively diminishing between 48,000 and 96,000 kilometers. (NASA SP-4210, 1977) * * * * * Current overview: Seventh lunar attempt (4th U.S.), this 6-kg (4-kg net) Pioneer 3 was the first of two U.S. Army launches toward the Moon: it was developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and launched for NASA by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA). The probe was a spin-stabilized craft (up to 700 rpm) whose primary goal was to fly by the Moon and then go into Solar orbit (a first). The spacecraft carried an optical sensor to test a future imaging system. If the sensor received, from a source such as the Moon, a collimated beam of light that was wide enough to pass through a lens and fall simultaneously on two photocells, then the sensor would send a signal to switch on an imaging system (not carried on this spacecraft). The probe failed to past the Moon because the main booster engine shut down 4 seconds earlier than planned due to propellant depletion. The lunar probe had reached 97.5% of the velocity to escape Earth gravity. It eventually reached 102,000 kilometers altitude before falling back toward Earth and burned up over Africa, 38 hours and 6 minutes after launch. However, the probe made a surprising discovery - a second radiation belt - which led to a change in mission for Pioneer IV, originally planned as a lunar orbiting mission to take photographs of the Moon.

Source:

Jonathan Space Report's Master List ; Mark Wade’s Encyclopedia Astronautica's 1958 Chronology ; National Space Science Data Center's 1958-008A ; Lunar Impact: A History of Project Ranger, 1977, Chapter 1 ; United States Aeronautics and Space Activities, 1st Annual Report to Congress, 1959, p. 11-2 ; Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1915-1960, p. 104, 142 ; Encyclopédie sociétique de l'astronautique mondial, 1971, Annexe 1 ; United States Civilian Space Program, 1958-1978, Vol. 1, 1981, p. 783, 784, 1256 ; TRW Space Log 1996 (Vol. 32), p. 66 ; A. Siddiqi, SP-2002-4524, p. 19 ; Origins of NASA Names (NASA SP-4402) Chapter 3 p. 88-89 ; Gunter's Pioneer 3, 4 ; Celestrak's Satcat=1958 ;

SCORE / Project Score

Spacecraft:

SCORE stands for Signal Communication by Orbiting Relay Equipment. This name could also signal an American intention to ‘score’ some points over the Soviets by orbiting a large and heavy payload. (Note: this is the first spacecraft’s name formed from the first letters of a series of words.)

Chronologies:

1958 payload #28 ; 1958-008A (1958 Zeta 1) ; 31st spacecraft, 10th space object catalogued.

Type:

Technology

Significant
achievements:

•	1st ‘communications satellite’ which beamed down human voice from space (5th U.S. satellite orbited).
•	1st USAF (military) satellite (although only a technological stunt).
•	Heaviest payload orbited to date, a 4-ton spacecraft launched by the United States (which had previously launched only tens-kilogram payloads).
•	Truly a U.S. ‘space stunt’ (to prove that not only the U.S.S.R. was also to launch heavy payload).

Sponsor:

U.S. Army

Launch:

18 December 1958 at 23h02 UT, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's LC-11, by an Atlas B. (First launch of an Atlas booster.)

Orbit:

178 km x 1,480 km x 32.3° x 101.46 min.	A&A
185 km x 1,484 km x 32.3° x 101.47 min.	ESAM
185 km x 1,484 km x 32.3° x 101.5 min.	USCSP
184 km x 1,484 km x 32.3° x 101.5 min.	TRW
185 km x 1,484 km x 32.3° x 101.50 min.	Wade

Decayed:

29 January 1959 (transmitted taped messages for 13 days).

Mission:

Historical reports: ARPA, with the Air Force as agent, fired an Atlas Intercontinental Ballistic Missile into orbit. The 68-kg payload attached to its 3,970 kg final rocket stage contained instrumentation that included radio equipment, tape recorder and transmitter. Titled "Project Score," for Signal Communications Orbital Relay Experiment, it was a dramatic demonstration of the potentialities of communications satellites.
     The missile (26 metres long, 3 metres in diameter) lifted off within two minutes after scheduled launch time. Its two powerful first-stage engines (approximately 68 tons thrust each) dropped after burnout, leaving the central sustainer engine to carry on to the end of the powered flight phase. At this point, the rocket's guidance system injected it into orbit, placing it in proper horizontal position precisely on time schedule.
     The satellite's communication equipment - modified standard items, for the most part - consisted principally of twin packages of radio transmitting, recording, and receiving apparatus, each weighing 15 kg.
     Recorded on tape at liftoff was a goodwill message from the President, which was transmitted the following day. It was the first time a human voice had been beamed from outer space. The message was as follows:
     “This is the President of the United States speaking. through the marvels of scientific advance, my voice is coming to you from a satellite circling in outer space.
     “My message is a simple one. Through this unique means I convey to you and to all mankind America's wish for peace on Earth and goodwill toward men everywhere. ”
     Later, the satellite accepted and relayed messages from ground stations in Texas, Arizona, and Georgia. (USASA, 1959)
     An entire Atlas booster was orbited; a total of 3,970 kg were placed in orbit, of which 70 kg was payload. Project Score, or the “talking atlas,” was communication relay test. Fron 19 December, President Eisenhower’s Christmas message was beamed from Project Score satellite - the first voice beamed in from space. ON 20 december, new voice and teletype messages were received and rebroadcast on command by Project Score satellite, and a series of experiments were continued in subsequent days. On 31 December, Project Score ceased transmissions, concluding 12 days of operations and 97 successful contacts.
     Project Score experiments: two packages of transmitter, recording and receiving apparatus. Total weight in orbit, including booster: 3,970 kg, Instrumentation in payload: 68 kg. First transmission from space (for 12 days). Down on 21 January 1959 (after 34 days). (A&A, 1961) * * * * * Current overview: Eight satellite put into Earth orbit (5th U.S.). With the orbiting of SCORE, the U.S. announced achievement of the world's heaviest satellite to date (3,969 kilograms), although the useful payload was only 68 kilograms. The payload consisted of a redundant pair of UHF communication packages attached to the Atlas launcher's main stage. Each package contained its own tape recorder. SCORE was thus the 25-metre-long by 3-metre-diameter Atlas missile used as a platform for the communications relay experiment, the rocket body serving as antennae. This mission was to demonstrate the feasibility of, and explore problems associated with, operation of a satellite communication system. It carried messages on a tape recorder which was used at one point to carry a Christmas greeting from President Eisenhower. This was the first voice transmission from space, and was broadcast from 18 December 1958 for 12 days - therefore earning SCORE its nickname “Talking Atlas”. (The planned orbit lifetime was calculated to be 20 days, but it lasted 35 days.) This propaganda operation demonstrated the possbility of store and forward messages as well as direct communications with ground stations. * * * * * SCORE: a stunt? Project SCORE is an enigma. Contrary to Vanguard and Explorer programs, for which we know the genesis, nothing is known about the origins of SCORE: who, when and for what reasons, decided to launch this heavy payload? And there were no follow-ups to SCORE. It looks as if the U.S. Air Force only wants to orbit an Atlas missile… simply to respond to Soviet’ heavy satellites? And why SCORE did broadcasted President Eisenhower’ voice? Only to please him?

Source:

Jonathan Space Report's Master List ; Mark Wade’s Encyclopedia Astronautica's 1958 Chronology ; National Space Science Data Center's 1958-006A ; United States Aeronautics and Space Activities, 1st Annual Report to Congress, 1959, p. 13-4 ; Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1915-1960, p. 104, 143 ; Encyclopédie sociétique de l'astronautique mondial, 1971, Annexe 1 ; United States Civilian Space Program, 1958-1978, Vol. 1, 1981, p. 1255 ; TRW Space Log 1996 (Vol. 32), p. 66 ; Congressional Research Service, Soviet Space Program 1971-75, 1976, p. 49 ; NASA, Aeronautical and Astronautical Events of 1962, p. 117 ; Gunter's SCORE ; Celestrak's Satcat=1958 ;

Historical Perspectives

For decades, the Soviets were credited of having launched only one spacecraft during 1958: an impressive Earth sciences laboratory. In fact, they made five launch attempts, having lost their first Sputnik science lab and three lunar probes. At the time of so many American launch failures, the Soviet Union was credited of not only having a more powerful rocket than the United States but also a much more dependable one.

.
Table – 1957-58 Launches
.

No.	..	Soviet Success	Soviet failures*	No....	..	American success**	American failures***


1)		Sputnik	.	1)		.	Vanguard TV-3
2)		Sputnik 2 (pF¹)	.	2)		Explorer 1	.
3)		.	Sputnik D #1	3)		.	Vanguard TV-3bu
4)		Sputnik 3	.	4)		.	Explorer 2
5)		.	Ye-1 #1	5)		Vanguard I.	.
6)		.	Ye-1 #2	6)		Explorer 3	.
7)		.	Ye-1 #3	7)		.	Vanguard TV-5
				8)		.	Vanguard SLV-1
				9)		.	Vanguard SLV-2
				11)		Explorer 4 (pF²)	.
				11)		.	Able 1
				12)		.	Explorer 5
				14)		.	Vanguard SLV-3
				15)		Pîoneer 1 (½S³)	.
				15)		.	Beacon 1
				16)		.	Pioneer 2 (pS⁴)
				17)			Pioneer 3 (pS⁵).
				18)		SCORE	.


Total		3 Soviet launch success	4 Soviet launch failures			6 American launch success	12 American launch failures (known*)

42.9 % launch success (3 in 7)

33.3 % launch success (6 in 18)

*		All Soviet failures were unknown at the time; they were revealed only in the 1980s and 1990s.
**		Including Able 2 and Pioneer 3 which, although they failed to reach their goal (the Moon), they had provide important scientific information.
***		Does not include the very secretive NOTS program, unknown at the time.
Notes		pF = partial failure; pS = partial success; ½S = half success; ½F half failure. (Paradoxically, a partial failure is more than a partial success, since it means that the mission was mostly successfull except for an important aspect, as a partial success is a mission which mostly failed except on an important aspect. Same for a half failure and a half success. Obviously, a launch failure is a complete failure.)
pF¹		Sputnik 2 was mostly a successful mission but, since Laika died hours after launch (following heat exhaustion), the mission could be considered a partial failure. (No recovered were planned from the beginning.)
pF²		Explorer 4 was tumbling in space, which made the interpretation of its data very difficult.
½S³		Pioneer 1 lunar probe is considered a success despite the fact that it did not reach the Moon, since it traveled 114,700 km into space, about 30 times farther than any man-made device had gone until that time.
pS⁴		Pioneer 2 lunar probe only flew 1,500 km from Earth but made some interesting observations about radiations and micrometeorites.
pS⁵		Failed to fly by the Moon but yielded valuable radiation data.

As of December 1958, the U.S. has recorded 8 successful launches and 11 failures - see table above. As for the Soviet Union, it had score three success and four (unknown) failures. So, success rate for the Soviet Unio and the United Statew were 43 % and 39% respectively.

Five U.S. satellites and two space probes were successfully launched; with one exception (SCORE), these accomplishments were part of the U. S. contribution to the International Geophysical Year (IGY). According to William H. Pickering, Director of the NASA-California Institute of Technology Jet Propulsion Laboratory, "We have demonstrated an ability to obtain maximum information from our relatively small payloads by virtue of miniaturization techniques in electronics. And we also have shown a flexibility in our program by adjusting missions to fully exploit discoveries made by earlier satellites, such as the development of the radiaion package in Explorer IV to investigate the radiation phenomenon found by Explorers I and III."(USASA, 1919)

James van Allen summed up the scientific significance of the fore- going launchings this way: “We, scientists, are sonetime asked, ‘What good is all this knowledge?’ The data we are receiving from Explorer is, to be sure, limited. Cosmic rays, meteoric dust and temperatures of objects in space sound like remote matters in the daily lives of people on Earth. But it is only by building our knowledge, fact by fact, that we will lay the groundwork for the more practical discoveries that lie ahead.
“Future weather patrol satellites can be expected to provide far-reaching benefits. Besides improving day-to-day forecasting, meteorologists might be able to predict droughts and rainy spells a year or more in advance. The value of such information to farmers is beyond estimation. Hurricanes and tornadoes could be spotted at birth and their deadly paths predicted.” "(USASA, 1919)

It is to note that U.S. satellites made some of the most significant discoveries of the space age: Explorer 1 discovered the van Allan radiation belts, Vanguard 1 discovered that Earth was pear-shaped, and Pioneer 3 made the surprizing discovery of a second radiation beltc.

Mes sites web: claudelafleur.qc.ca