I think the mission is very interesting, and I've seen it fly-over and witnessed it change its orbital plane enough to miss a predicted fly-over a day or two later.
The public knows more about space exploration than reporters, and reading most "science reporting" these days is like attending a kindergarten class.
Vanguard has been in orbit since 1958, but has been non-operating since 1964. The longest operating satellite used to keep an eye on the Sun and gave early warning of solar flares for manned missions, but I couldn’t find that info. The Zarya module of the ISS was launched first, and the Unity rendezvous with it began the long process of building the ISS. Both are US-owned, Zarya was built in the former USSR. The Soviets tried probes to Mars as early as 1960, all of them failures, and they are still out there in solar orbit (but dead).
http://www.nrl.navy.mil/accomplishments/rockets/vanguard-project/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zarya
http://www.planetary.org/explore/space-topics/space-missions/missions-to-mars.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariner_4