The first successful Vanguard satellite launching came on March 17, 1958.

This success led to an escalation of the American space program, which unsuccessfully attempted to launch a Vanguard satellite into orbit two months later.

The Vanguard 1 satellite holds the record for being in space longer than any other man-made object.

March 17 - The United States launches the Vanguard 1 satellite.

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 US Navy had been assigned the task of launching Vanguard satellites as part of the program.

The first spacecraft to use solar panels was the Vanguard 1 satellite, launched by the US in 1958.

The Vanguard rocket failed on the first attempt to launch the Vanguard satellite in December 1957, crashing back to the pad and exploding.

SLV-5 and -6 also failed, but the final flight on September 18, 1959 successfully orbited the 23.6 kg (52 lb) Vanguard 3 satellite.

As the three Vanguard satellites are still orbiting, with their drag properties essentially unchanged, they form a baseline atmospheric dataset fifty years old and counting.