World’s Oldest Satellite Has Been in Space for 67 Years. Engineers Want to Bring It Home

An awkward-looking, spherical satellite the size of a grapefruit launched in March 1958, and was boosted into a high elliptical orbit. The satellite, named Vanguard-1, was a test of launch capabilities during the early days of the historic space age. Other satellites of its time have reentered through Earth’s atmosphere, burning up in a fiery death, but Vanguard-1 is still in orbit, silently zooming through the void of space. A team of researchers and engineers want to retrieve the satellite for closer inspection and are currently working to find a way to bring Vanguard-1 home. Vanguard-1 is the second U.S. satellite launched to space. Conceived by the Naval Research Laboratory in 1955, it was designed to test the launch capabilities of a three-stage launch vehicle and the effects of the harsh space environment on a satellite. Today, it remains as the oldest artificial object orbiting Earth. A team of researchers and engineers from Virginia-based consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton ha ... Read full article.