Vanguard TV3 Rocket Explosion 1957-12-06 NASA

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Jeff Quitney

Published on Dec 10, 2016

"The Vanguard TV3 was launched on December 6, 1957 at Cape Canaveral Kennedy Space Center. It was the first attempt by the United States to put a satellite into orbit around Earth. However, the rocket only rose a few feet before crashing violently back onto the launchpad. "


Vanguard TV3 was the first attempt of the United States to launch a satellite into orbit around the Earth. It was a small satellite designed to test the launch capabilities of the three-stage Vanguard rocket and study the effects of the environment on a satellite and its systems in Earth orbit. It was also to be used to obtain geodetic measurements through orbit analysis.

At its launch attempt on December 6, 1957 at Cape Canaveral, the booster ignited and began to rise; but about two seconds after liftoff, after rising about four feet (1.2 m), the rocket lost thrust and began to fall back to the launch pad. As it settled the fuel tanks ruptured and exploded, destroying the rocket and severely damaging the launch pad. The Vanguard satellite was thrown clear and landed on the ground a short distance away with its transmitters still sending out a beacon signal. The satellite was damaged, however, and could not be reused. It is now on display at the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution.

The exact cause of the accident was never determined with certainty, but the commonly accepted explanation is that low fuel tank pressure during the start procedure allowed some of the burning fuel in the combustion chamber to leak into the fuel system through the injector head before full propellant pressure was obtained from the turbopump...

Satellite construction project

The history of the Vanguard TV3 project dates back to the International Geophysical Year (IGY). Initiated in 1952, orbiting a satellite became one of the main goals of the IGY. This was an enthusiastic international undertaking that united scientists globally to conduct planet-wide geophysical studies. The IGY guaranteed free exchange of information acquired through scientific observation which led to many important discoveries in the future. As early as July 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower announced, through his press secretary, that the United States would launch "small, unmanned, earth-circling satellites as part of the U.S. participation in the I.G.Y." On September 9, 1955, the United States Department of Defense wrote a letter to the secretary of the Navy authorizing the mission to proceed. The US Navy had been assigned the task of launching Vanguard satellites as part of the program. Project Vanguard had officially begun.

Satellite design

The payload was a 1.36 kg aluminium sphere 152 mm in diameter, nearly identical to the later Vanguard 1. It contained a mercury battery powered, 10 mW, 108 MHz transmitter and a 5 mW, 108.03 MHz transmitter powered by six solar cells mounted on the body of the satellite. Six short antennas protruded from the sphere. 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. Vanguard also carried two thermistors to measure the interior temperatures in order to track the effectiveness of the thermal protection.

Engineers recovered the payload from the launch area, still functioning. It was restored and put on display at the entrance to the Apollo gallery when the National Air and Space Museum opened in 1976. Since then the display has been modified to show TV3 in a condition closer to what it was found in.

Reaction

As a result of the launch failure, trading in the stock of the Martin Company, prime contractor for the project, was temporarily suspended by the New York Stock Exchange.

Newspapers in the United States, published prominent headlines and articles noting the failure including plays on the name of the Russian satellite, Sputnik, such as "Flopnik", "Kaputnik", "Oopsnik", and "Stayputnik"...

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Reupload of a previously uploaded film with improved video & sound.

Public domain film from NASA, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.
The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

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The previous two videos of this pad explosion are no longer available, but a portion of the explosion and more can be seen in this video. Can you guess what the "Thing" is before it is revealed at the end of the video?

The Thing from PAD 18

Oct 25, 2025
On the derelict yet historic Launch Pad 18 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, a left behind monolith demands to be rediscovered!