What is Vanguard i?

Vanguard I was the fourth satellite running in orbit and the other launched by the United States. (Others were launched earlier, Soviet Sputniks I and II and American Explorer I were I.) Vanguard I started from Cape Canaveral in Florida 17th March 1958, just over 5 months after the first satellite Satellite. I was also the first satellite to be driven by solar drive. This contributes up to 5.7 billion naval kilometers, distances from Earth to the dwarf planet Pluto, and then halfway back. This is just over half the distance traveled by the voyager 1 , now far beyond the boundaries of the solar system, making it one of the most distant artificial objects in history.

on 17. March 2008 American scientists celebrated 50. Vanguard in orbit. Vanguard I is the oldest satellite still in orbit. Its orbital road is an ellipse, 654 × 3969 km (406 × 2466 miles) in the range, tilted 34 degrees due to the plane of the elliptics. Byit is built in orbit on the middle country (meo). The satellite was originally launched on a trajectory, which was assumed that it had it in orbit for 2000 years, but subsequent analyzes with regard to sunlight and atmospheric move that it would remain "only" for 240 years in orbit. This erroneous estimate is the result of limited knowledge of space at the time of the satellite.

Vanguard I was quite small on the satellite - 1.47 kg (3.2 lb) aluminum ball 152 mm (6 inches) in diameter in diameter. Because of its small size compared to the satellite initiated by the previously Soviet Union Sputnik (weighing 83.6 kg (about 183 lb) and 2 ft), then the Soviet Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev called it "Grapefruit's satellite". Vanguard I, however, returned important information about the geodesics and dynamics of orbit, opening the window into space and paving the journey for thousands of future satellites.