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Atlas B | SCORE

Convair | United States of America
Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA
Dec. 18, 1958, 11:02 p.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission:

SCORE or Signal Communications by Orbiting RElay was the world first purpose built communications satellite. It provided a second test of a communications relay system after the first being provided by Pioneer 1.

Low Earth Orbit
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Juno II | Pioneer 3

Army Ballistic Missile Agency | United States of America
Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA
Dec. 6, 1958, 5:44 a.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission:

Pioneer 3 was a spin-stabilized spacecraft intended as a lunar probe but failed to perform a lunar flyby as planned. Its mission was revised to measure radiation in the outer Van Allen radiation belts.

Lunar flyby
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Vostok-L 8K72 | Luna-1c

Energia | Russia
Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan
Dec. 4, 1958, 6:18 p.m.
Status: Launch Failure
Mission:

Luna E-1 number 3 was a Soviet spacecraft intended to impact the moon but was lost in a launch failure.

Lunar Impactor
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Thor Able I | Pioneer 2

McDonnell Douglas | United States of America
Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA
Nov. 8, 1958, 7:30 a.m.
Status: Launch Failure
Mission:

The third pioneer orbiter, pioneer 2 intended to enter lunar orbit but failed to make orbit when the third stage failed to ignite.

Lunar Orbit
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Juno-I | Beacon

Chrysler | United States of America
Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA
Oct. 23, 1958, 3:21 a.m.
Status: Launch Failure
Mission:

Beacon 1 was a large inflatable satellite of micro-thin plastic covered with aluminium foil. It was designed to be large so that it was easily visible from Earth.

Low Earth Orbit
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Vostok-L 8K72 | Luna-1b

Energia | Russia
Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan
Oct. 11, 1958, 9:41 p.m.
Status: Launch Failure
Mission:

Luna E-1 number 2 was a Soviet spacecraft intended to impact the moon, however, was lost in a launch failure.

Lunar Impactor
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Thor Able I | Pioneer 1

McDonnell Douglas | United States of America
Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA
Oct. 11, 1958, 8:42 a.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission:

The second pioneer orbiter, pioneer 1 intended to enter lunar orbit but missed the Moon after a third stage partial failure.

Lunar Orbit
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Vanguard | Vanguard

Lockheed Martin | United States of America
Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA
Sept. 26, 1958, 3:38 p.m.
Status: Launch Failure
Mission:

Vanguard was an American satellite and the fourth artificial Earth orbital satellite to be launched. It was the first satellite to have solar electric power.

Medium Earth Orbit
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Vostok-L 8K72 | Luna-1a

Energia | Russia
Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan
Sept. 23, 1958, 7:40 a.m.
Status: Launch Failure
Mission:

Luna E-1 number 1 was a Soviet spacecraft intended to impact the moon, however, was lost in a launch failure.

Lunar Impactor
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Project Pilot | NOTS 6

US Navy | United States of America
Air launch to Suborbital flight
Aug. 28, 1958, midnight
Status: Launch Failure
Mission:

The project pilot payloads were small cylindrical satellites. These missions intended to be the first to launch a satellite from an aircraft. They had only a single instrument, a very primitive infrared line scanning device to make IR images of the ground.

Low Earth Orbit
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