Posted on 12/10/2017 1:35:08 PM PST by Richard from IL
I was on the John Batchelor Show last Thursday talking about Project Vanguard, GPS and my book GPS Declassified: From Smart Bombs to Smartphones. www.gpsdeclassified.com
Congrats!
Semi-related, did you see where Voyager’s thrusters were fired the other day? Amazing at 19.5 light-hours distant!
Yes, its amazing that they worked 37 years after their last firing.
I caught most of that program!
John does a terrific job and his enthusiasm for his varied subject matter is enjoyable.
Thank you Richard, I will check it out.
12-07-2017
(Photo:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Vanguard )
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Hotel Mars: 60 years since "Flopnik" Vanguard. David Livingston, SpaceShow.com Richard Easton, author, GPS Declassified: From Smart Bombs to Smartphones.
Project Vanguard was a program managed by the United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), which intended to launch the first artificial satellite into Earth orbit using a Vanguard rocket[1] as the launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral Missile Annex, Florida.
In response to the surprise launch of Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, the U.S. restarted the Explorer program, which had been proposed earlier by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA). Privately, however, the CIA and President Dwight D. Eisenhower were aware of progress being made by the Soviets on Sputnik from secret spy plane imagery.[2] Together with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), ABMA built Explorer 1 and launched it on January 31, 1958. Before work was completed, however, the Soviet Union launched a second satellite, Sputnik 2, on November 3, 1957. Meanwhile, the spectacular televised failure of Vanguard TV3 on December 6, 1957 deepened American dismay over the country's position in the Space Race.
On March 17, 1958, Vanguard 1 became the second artificial satellite successfully placed in Earth orbit by the United States. It was the first solar-powered satellite. Just 152 mm (6 in) in diameter and weighing just 1.4 kg (3 lb), Vanguard 1 was described by then-Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev as, "The grapefruit satellite."[3]
Vanguard 1 is the oldest artificial satellite still in space, as Vanguard's predecessors, Sputnik 1, Sputnik 2, and Explorer 1, have decayed from orbit.Podcasted Thu 2017-12-07 23:00:08 EST and downloaded Fri 2017-12-08 03:57:34 EST.
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They've been hermetically sealed in a vac pac...
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Thats my Dad. I think thats the picture which appeared in the December, 1957 National Geographic.
I was going to ask... Cool dad!
My first GPS was a $1000 Magellan that gave lat-long coordinates. It was degraded for military reasons and loran was still considered superior for coastal navigation. I learned ded-reckoning on paper charts and would cheat by, “aiming” an AM radio at land stations to triangulate.
It’s amazing that they are giving away GPS sets in cracker jack boxes. Well, almost!)
I’ll look for your book.
cool stuff...bump!
Congrats and great job!
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