Editing Project Vanguard (section)

== Project history ==
In the early 1950s, the [[American Rocket Society]] set up an ad hoc Committee on Space Flight, of which [[Milton W. Rosen]], NRL project manager for the [[Viking (rocket)|Viking rocket]], became chair. Encouraged by conversations between Richard W. Porter of [[General Electric]] and [[Alan T. Waterman]], Director of the [[National Science Foundation]] (NSF), Rosen on 27 November 1954, completed a report describing the potential value of launching an Earth satellite. The report was submitted to the NSF early in 1955.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4202/begin.html |title=''Vanguard — A History'', Chapter 1. Constance M. Green and Milton Lomask, NASA SP-4202. NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. and |access-date=8 October 2009 |archive-date=22 June 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100622200847/http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4202/begin.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> As part of planning for the [[International Geophysical Year]] (1957–1958), the U.S. publicly undertook to place an artificial satellite with a scientific experiment into orbit around the Earth.

=== The three services' proposals ===
Proposals to do this were presented by the [[United States Air Force]] (USAF), the [[United States Army]] (USA), and the [[United States Navy]] (USN). The Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) under Dr. [[Wernher von Braun]] had suggested using a modified [[Redstone (rocket)|Redstone rocket]] (see: [[Juno I]]) while the Air Force had proposed using the [[Atlas ICBM|Atlas launch vehicle]], which did not yet exist. The Navy proposed designing a [[rocket]] system based on the [[Viking rocket|Viking]] and [[Aerobee rocket]] systems.

The Air Force proposal was not seriously considered, as Atlas development was years behind the other vehicles. Among other limitations, the Army submission focused on the launch vehicle, while a payload was assumed to become available from the [[Jet Propulsion Laboratory]] (JPL), and the network of ground tracking stations was assumed to be a Navy project. The Navy proposal detailed all three aspects of the mission.<ref>Green & Lomask, 1970 ''loc cit'', Chapter 3</ref>