Vanguard TV–3 Satellite

On December 6, 1957, two months after Sputnik’s triumphant launch, the United States responded with Vanguard, a Navy satellite. Unfortunately, the rocket carrying the Vanguard TV–3 satellite lifted only a meter off the ground and exploded, sending TV–3 sputtering across the sands of Cape Canaveral, Florida. Newspapers around the world nicknamed the sorry little satellite “Kaputnik,” “Flopnik,” and “Dudnik.”

Gift of Dr. John P. Hagan