Editing Vanguard TV-3 (section)

== Satellite construction project ==
[[File:Vanguard rocket explodes.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|left|The Vanguard rocket explodes on launch]]
[[File:A team of Vanguard I scientists mount the satellite in the rocket.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|right|The NRL engineers place Vanguard 1 atop the third stage of the launching vehicle. Shown here (from left to right, Roger L. Easton, Sandy J. Smith, Robert C. Bauman, and Joseph B. Schwartz. (Bauman and Schwartz transferred with the Vanguard Project to NASA). On 17 March 1958, Vanguard 1 started its historic journey into space (U.S. Navy photo).]]

The history of the Vanguard TV-3 project dates back to the [[International Geophysical Year]] (IGY). This was an enthusiastic international undertaking that united scientists globally to conduct planet-wide geophysical studies. The IGY guaranteed free exchange of information acquired through scientific observation which led to many important discoveries in the future.<ref>Lina Kohonen, "The Space race and Soviet utopian thinking", ''Sociological Review''; Vol. 57, May 2009, p. 114</ref> Orbiting a satellite became one of the main goals of the IGY. As early as July 1955, President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] announced, through his press secretary, that the United States would launch "small, unmanned, Earth-circling satellites as part of the U.S. participation in the I.G.Y."<ref>John P. Hagen, "The Viking and the Vanguard", in ''Technology and Culture'', Vol. 4, No. 4, (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press), Autumn 1963, p. 437)</ref> On 9 September 1955, the [[United States Department of Defense]] (U.S. DoD) wrote a letter to the secretary of the Navy authorizing the mission to proceed. The U.S. Navy had been assigned the task of launching Vanguard satellites as part of the program. Project Vanguard had officially begun.<ref>John P. Hagen, "The Viking and the Vanguard", in ''Technology and Culture'', Vol. 4, No. 4, (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press), Autumn 1963, p. 439)</ref>