Vanguard I satellite marks 50 years in orbit
By Donald Melanson 
posted March 14th 2008 11:46AM
posted March 14th 2008 11:46AM
It may not have been the first, but Vanguard I does have the distinction of being the oldest satellite still in orbit, and it's now set to mark its 50th anniversary on March 17th. It can lay claim to being the very first solar-powered satellite, however, and it has no shortage of accomplishments under its belt, including returning information on air density, temperature ranges and micrometeorite impact, and maintaining an orbit so stable that cartographers were able to draw more accurate maps of islands in the Pacific Ocean. Even now, researchers rely on ground-based tracking of the satellite to provide data on the effects of the sun, moon, and atmosphere on satellite orbits. And, of course, as you can see above, it was also way ahead of this whole steampunk thing..
[Image courtesy of NASA/NSSDC]
[Image courtesy of NASA/NSSDC]
Danger Will Robinson! Danger!
Sometimes the reliability of low tech is a good thing. Very impressive.
Very cool. The Aliens left this one alone.
Based on that picture I'm guessing NASA's definition of orbit includes "hanging from a string in somebody's back yard."
yup, that sure is a low orbit. good call. must be thousands of folk around the world getting sick of ducking for this thing.
mini-V.I.N.C.E.N.T.
50 years working in a hazardous environment? In 10 years it's gonna have a big fat pension!
Awww! What a cute little baby death star!
It's a terrible shame the way they were hunted to near extinction a long, long time ago.
Let's hope this one can live to adulthood and returned to the wild.
I think the moon, a sattelite of the Earth is much older than 50 years, and the Earth, a sattelite of the sun, is much, much older.
KidDoc
"The first solar-powered satellite, Vanguard I has the distinction of being the oldest artificial satellite orbiting the earth."
emphasis on artificial
He's right. The moon and sun are actually artificial unbeknownst to you.
They were built by the forerunners who, actually, also setup ancient ring-worlds through the universe which explode with a radius of 10,000 light years killing all sentient life-forms.
Somewhere else it may say "artificial." Here, the post simply said "sattelite." I just think the poor moon gets an unfair shake.
With the blast shield down I can't even see! How am I supposed to fight?
Anyone ever wonder what the purpose of the blast shield is, if you can't see through it?
Yeah, but I bet it can't play Doom and lets face it who would want to be stuck in orbit for 50 years without a little bit of frag'n now and again?
Let's shoot this one down next- of course it will miss and hit another one of those Afghani Cell Towers
I thought it also helped discover the Van Allen belts, or am I thinking of a different one?
Why does this image look like a still from Plan 9 From Outer Space (except in color)?
will it blend?
that is the question.
*put the thing into the blender*
Smoothie
*blender noise*
*open the lid*
don't breath this
*pour the remainings "ashes" into the table
Yes it blends. woohoo