Vanguard
USA Wikipedia 
Built & Operated By
Lockheed Martin
Commercial · founded 1953
Maiden Flight
23 OCT 1957
About
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.
Vehicle Specifications
Height
23 m
Diameter
1.14 m
Launch Mass
10 T
Thrust
123 kN
Stages
3
Configuration
Expendable
Launch Record
Total Launches
11
Successful
3
Failed
8
Consecutive
1
Performance
To LEO
9 kg