“The oldest in the world. Nasa wants to return to the ground Vanguard-1, which spent in space for almost 70 years on April 14, 05:32 Share: Vanguard-1 launched March 17, 1958 (photo: NASA) Author: Anastasia Pechenyuk Satellite Vanguard-1, brought to a high elliptical orbit in the middle of the last century. Vanguard-1 is the second satellite of the USA launched into space, it was designed by Naval Research Laboratory”, – WRITE ON: ua.news
Vanguard-1 launched March 17, 1958 (photo: NASA)
The Vanguard-1 satellite, bred into a high elliptical orbit in the middle of the last century, will try to return to the ground during an unprecedented mission.
Vanguard-1 is the second satellite of the United States, launched into space, it has been developed by Naval Research Laboratory since 1955 and was created to check the possibility of launching a three-stage rocket launcher. This small grapefruit satellite was successfully brought into the Earth’s elliptical orbit in March 1958 and today remains the oldest artificial object, which rotates around our planet.
Vanguard-1 was silent in 1964, but scientists can track its location and orbit, so a team of researchers and engineers from Booz Allen Hamilton proposes to bring it back to the ground to study how its equipment has worked for many years, Space.com writes.
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Researchers suggest that the satellite can be placed in a lower orbit and extracted from space or captured at an international space station.
“Future missions (Removal of space debris, capture of materials for production in orbit, and even deep space research) can be based on methods demonstrated in the search for Vanguard-1. Vanguard-1 return would be a challenge, but an attainable and invaluable step forward for the entire US space community, ”the researchers are convinced.
Recall that in 1984, NASA already used its astronauts to capture the satellite when entering open space with the help of a jet.