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Trailblazer 1 | Trailblazer 1g
National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationLaunch Successful

Trailblazer 1g

Trailblazer 1

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Historical mission record

This page records Trailblazer 1 | Trailblazer 1g and its reported outcome: Launch Successful. The date above is a historical record.

Source record updated . This is a source update, not a confirmed launch time.

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Mission status
Launch Successful

Status reported by the mission data provider.

LAUNCH SITEWallops Flight Facility, Virginia, USA

Mission

An experiment where an actual 'artificial meteorite' was flown. This was a 5.8 g steel pellet, which was driven into the atmosphere at 6 km/sec by a 'seventh stage', a shaped charge that accelerated the pellet after burnout of the rocket's six stage. This experiment provided a known reference by which the size of actual meteoroids could be measured according to the luminance of their trails.

Launch vehicle
Trailblazer 1
Mission type
Test Flight
Destination orbit
Suborbital
Launch pad
Unknown Pad
Provider
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

The vehicle

Published configuration and flight history.

Launch vehicle

Trailblazer 1

American test vehicle. The rocket's first three stages would take the upper stage package to a 260 km apogee. The upper stage package was mounted upside-down in relation to the other stages. When it had reached the peak, the three upper stages fired in sequence, ramming the payload, a 13 cm sphere, into the atmosphere at orbital re-entry speeds.

Height
17.1 m
Diameter
0.58 m
Stages
4
Recorded launches
1
First flight
1959-03-03

Recorded timing

This is a mission record, not an upcoming calendar appointment.

Instantaneous windowPublished target
SCHEDULED MOMENT

A single scheduled moment. The schedule may change before launch.

Launch site & orbit

Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, USA

The mission in perspective

Launch site

DestinationSuborbital

Explore the launch pad on Earth using its published coordinates.

Explore Earth’s orbits
NASA Blue Marble map of Earth's continents and oceans
Geographic view · illustrative lightingNo live tracking or simulated ascent. NASA Blue Marble.

Coverage & sources

Links supplied by the mission data provider.
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Mission coverage

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Further reading

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