- Family: Vanguard
- Length: 23 m
- Diameter: 1.14 m
- Launch Mass: 10 T
- Low Earth Orbit Capacity: 9 kg
The Vanguard was manufactured by Lockheed Martin with the first launch on 1957-10-23. Vanguard has 3 successful launches and 8 failed launches with a total of 11 launches. The Vanguard rocket was intended to be the first launch vehicle the United States would use to place a satellite into orbit. Instead, the Sputnik crisis caused by the surprise launch of Sputnik 1 led the U.S., after the failure of Vanguard TV3, to quickly orbit the Explorer 1 satellite using a Juno I rocket, making Vanguard I the second successful U.S. orbital launch.
Manufacturer
Lockheed Martin's Space Division started in the production of missiles and later ICBM's in the 1950s. Their TITAN missile system was used for 12 Gemini spacecraft and the Voyager probes. They have worked largely in collaboration with NASA on many of their probes, landers, and spacecraft, and hope to play a key role in NASA's return to the moon in 2024. Lockheed Martin is a Commercial USA entity that was founded in 1953 and is administered by .
Lockheed Martin has 77 successful launches and 3 failed launches with a total of 80 launches.
